


Danganronpa: The Light of Despair

by Zeta_Fox



Series: Rapture of Despair [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Fan Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Minor Canonical Character(s), Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, POV Original Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:35:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29194653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeta_Fox/pseuds/Zeta_Fox
Summary: Sixteen high school students who are the elite of their generation are invited to a school for people just like them: Raionhāto Academy. But things quickly go wrong. After waking up in a strange temple, Rin Akabane must combat the forces of despair that threaten her and her classmates. But the largest threat of all is her classmates. In the Killing Game, it is kill or be killed. The only way to ever return home: murder one of your classmates and get away with the crime.
Series: Rapture of Despair [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143434
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue: Welcome to the Temple of Despair

**Author's Note:**

> This story took me two years to write. And I love how it came out. So I'm going to be sharing the entire thing here for people to see. Because it is already done, I will be posting a new chapter every Saturday (yes, I know that it's a Thursday as of posting this, not the point). And this story is *long*. When writing it, it came out to 620 pages (more pages if converted into the actual size of a book). I also wrote this wanting to create a story that takes place long after the events of Danganronpa 3 as a continuation of the main storyline, so I kept using the original character to a minimum, wanting this story to be separate, but still entwined. But when I started this, I hadn't seen or played Danganronpa V3 yet (in all honesty, I didn't even know it existed at the time). This resulted in some similarities between the stories that I didn't intend to have, but didn't want to change. And lastly, the prologue on this is insanely long, coming out to a whopping 13,629 words. I also have a second book in the works, but I have no idea when I'll finish it. Once I do, I'll probably be doing the same thing I'm doing now and posting a chapter once a week (but that could be, like, a year from now, so don't expect it any time soon; it's still very early on in the writing process). So I hope you enjoy this and, most importantly, feel despair from it.

Well, this is awkward. 

Um, hi there. My name is Rin Akabane, and I’m the  **Ultimate Historian** . I’m sure you’re wondering what an “ **Ultimate** ” is? An  **Ultimate** is a person chosen by the government who is the best in their field through a program called the  **Ultimate Initiative** . The  **Ultimate Initiative** is a program that selects the best teenagers in a particular field. And the program chose me as the  **Ultimate Historian** and sent my information to Hope’s Peak Academy and their competition,  Raionhāto Academy. 

In the end,  Raionhāto Academy accepted me into their school. And it’s a school for only  **Ultimates** . Hope’s Peak Academy, Raionhāto’s rival of sorts, is another school like Raionhāto. But Hope’s Peak was the original  **Ultimate Academy** . 

Then Raionhāto popped up and wanted me to join their school. I went without a second thought. 

But then something happened. One day, I woke up somewhere I wasn’t supposed to. Somewhere I didn’t understand. Somewhere I didn’t know. 

But I knew it very well soon enough. And the despair that it wrought. 

My name is Rin Akabane, and I’m the  **Ultimate Historian** . And this is beginning of my new, macabre life. My not so normal life. My life of hope and despair, truth and lies, trust and betrayal...life and death. 

My eyes opened suddenly. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the lighting, but once they did, concern coursed through my veins. 

Where the hell was I? 

I shot up in the bed (which was surprisingly comfy). Upon glancing at the bed, it looked like something that I’d choose for myself. It was my style. As were my clothes, as strange as they were. 

I was wearing a light gray shirt with rips and tears littering it. It was sleeveless and a golden ring sat on my left bicep. I had tan boots and gray shorts that had been rolled up and held in place with a strap. Making them more short shorts than anything. My light brown, almost pink hair fell around me. 

But I ignored those freaky little facts as I stood up from the bed. The room was a sort of limestone or sandstone, I couldn’t tell. What I could tell, though, was that I had been kidnapped by someone who clearly knew me well enough to build a room like this for me. 

But that thought, the thought of being kidnapped, either by a stalker or friend, was terrifying. My heart beat quickly as I backed away out into the door. It was closed. The door seemed to be made of oak wood, but I wasn’t thinking about any of that as I burst through the door and out into the hall. 

The hall that split off into a T junction. I could go right or left. Instead of thinking, I turned right on instinct. I kept my head down as I hurriedly walked forward. And then made a left once I reached the next turn. 

Where I ran into someone. 

My hair was knocked in front of my eyes as I backed away quickly. “S-Sorry!” I pushed the hair out of my eyes and froze. “Junji?” I gasped. 

Junji Kimoto’s eyes widened as he laid eyes on me. “Rin!” he gaped. He pulled me into a hug and I returned it gladly. “How are you?” he asked. “Are you okay?” 

I nodded. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine. I think. How are you?” 

“Me? I’m okay. Disoriented, but I’ll live.” 

He looked exactly as I remembered him (even though it had only been a month since we last saw each other). Strands of his dark blue hair fell over his left eye, tanned skin, and a smile that could light up an entire room. The smile wasn’t there at the moment, but the relief in his eyes to see me was clear as day. 

And his clothes, as ever, were completely him. A light pink short sleeved shirt with white lines running along the base of the arms and where the sleeves cut off. It was around the neck line and at the bottom of the shirt. But that was covered by an orange-ish red hoodie. He had a loose, pink, rubber wristband around his right wrist. And he wore normal sneakers and blue jeans. It was totally Junji. 

And I knew it for a very specific reason. 

Junji and I had known each other our entire lives. Ever since were born the two of us had been inseparable. Our parents tried from time to time to get us to branch out and make new friends, but it didn’t work that much. We made other friends, yes, but it was always the two of us against the world. 

“J-Junji,” I stammered, “do you have any idea where we are?” 

He shook his head. “None. I just woke up from this room down the hall.” He gestured behind him and went on. “The room seemed tailored to me. It had things I liked and enjoyed.” 

“Same here,” I said, nervous sweat building on the back of my neck. 

“What is the last thing you remember before waking up here?” Junji asked. 

“The last thing?” I repeated. “Um, I was in my room. It was night. Midnight, I think, before I finally went to bed. I was going to be going away to Raionhāto Academy the next day, so I had to get to bed early. But I didn’t.” 

“Wait, you were going to go to Raionhāto Academy!?” 

“Yeah! As the  **Ultimate Historian** . Why?”  _ Oh, wait, right…  _

“Well, they had accepted me into the school as well. I didn’t know how to tell you, so I didn’t. I was going to wait until I had arrived, I think.” 

It was a jerk thing to do, but I was going to do the same thing, so who was I to judge? “S-Same here. What is your  **Ultimate Talent** , then? I’m sure I could guess, but I want to be told.” 

“Oh? And what do you think I am?” A mischievous grin spread across his face. “Well, Rin?” 

I sighed, blushed, and glanced away as I guessed. “I think you’d be the  **Ultimate Discoverer** . Maybe. I think.” 

He hissed through his teeth as he groaned, “Oh, so close yet so far away. I’m the  **Ultimate Cartographer** .” 

I groaned. “Dammit! I guess it makes sense though. I mean, they are close.” 

“I suppose, but it’s not what I am.” He cocked his head. “So, you’re the  **Ultimate Historian** , huh? That fits perfectly.” 

“Of course it does!” I scoffed, feigning a pompous attitude. He only smiled. “Oh, come on!” I groaned. “That was funny.” 

“You need to work on your acting.” 

“Yeah, well, you need to work on...your…” I trailed off, desperately trying to think of something. 

“Yes, Rin?” He was grinning like a damned idiot. “What  _ do _ I need to work on?” 

“I-I don’t know. I’ll think of something though.” 

“I’m sure.” 

I stuck my tongue out at him before returning my attention to the hallway we stood in. “Um, Junji, do you think we should look around?” 

“Well, it’d make sense. There might be more people, there might be answers, there might be an escape. The only way we’ll find out is if we stop standing here and start moving.” 

I nodded. “Then you’ll keep note of where we’re going, right,  **Ultimate Cartographer** ?” 

“You know it.” 

I took the lead with Junji behind me. I could tell he was taking note of where everything was and the route we were taking. 

The building we were in was a winding labyrinth of corridors and hallways. Doors and doors and doors were everywhere. Most of them looked like they led to a classroom, of sorts. “Surely this isn’t Raionhāto Academy, right?” I asked. 

“No, I don’t think so. Raionhāto should be located elsewhere. Not that we know where we are, but pictures that I’ve seen of the place showed it had windows. And a front door. And stairs to another floor.” 

I stared down the hall and saw a sign that said:  _ Kitchen _ . It was sloppily written. “Are you hungry, Junji?” I asked, my mouth watering as I thought of the food in the kitchen. 

“Are you ever not?” he backfired. 

I shot him a dirty look over my shoulder as I started towards the kitchen. I was about ready to open the door when I heard a crash of inside. 

I hesitated for only a second before bursting in. “What’s-” I began, but stopped. A boy was on the ground, with a tipped over chair a few feet away. Another boy was standing above him, a bow in hand with a quiver of arrows strapped across his waist. A girl with green hair sat on the counter, holding a book in her hands. She looked bored. Another girl with a fox headband and fox tail clip standing behind the boy with the bow. And the final person, another girl, stood a few feet away from them, almost perfectly still, but she was swaying from side to side, as though listening to some unhearable music. A bright smile decorated her face. 

The boy with the weapon turned to me. “Oh, hi there.” He wore a gray, quarter sleeved sweatshirt, but the actual sleeves were black. He had brown hiking boots and long camouflage pants. He had a long, black glove arm guard on his left wrist. Spiked, dark blue hair and bright blue eyes. 

“Hi,” I greeted slowly. “Uh, what is going on here?” 

The girl on the counter lowered her book. What she wore was also simple, even though she looked worse for wear. She had a large gray coat that poofed out along the waist and draped down to her knees. What looked like wool was lining the inside and parts of the outside of her coat. She had black combat boots and large, bushy bright green hair thrown over to the right side of her head. The left side of her head was mostly shaved. She had glowing red eyes and three nasty scars that ran along the bridge of her nose. 

“He”-she pointed at the boy on the ground-“is a fucking pervert, so dear Renzo here knocked him on his ass.” 

The boy with the weapon-Renzo-blushed slightly. “She makes it sound so much more violent than it is. Anyways, hi. I’m Renzo Takaki.” 

“Rin Akabane. This is Junji Kimoto.” 

“Hi! Hi!” the girl in the corner waved. “Mami’s name is Mami Nagase. She is an  **Ultimate** , you know! Mami is the  **Ultimate Unlucky Student** !” Mami wore a teal sweat jacket with a tan sleeveless shirt underneath. A brown skirt and matching brown chelsea boots. Her long blond hair fell down to her waist. A scar was on her left cheek, but her bright blue eyes were practically glowing. 

I choked. “That’s an  **Ultimate Talent** ?”  _ The  _ **_Ultimate Unlucky Student_ ** _. Well, damn. That’s surprising.  _

“Apparently,” the girl on the counter sighed. “How it’s a talent is beyond me. Anyways, I’m Hitomi Mihara. Like Mami, I’m an  **Ultimate** . The  **Ultimate Librarian** , to be more precise.” 

“I’m the  **Ultimate Historian** ,” I said. 

“And I’m the  **Ultimate Cartographer** ,” Junji added. “Wait, so are all of you  **Ultimates** ?” 

Renzo nodded. “Yeah. I’m the  **Ultimate Archer** .” 

“I could guess,” I commented, eyeing the arrows. 

The boy on the floor stood up, brushing off some non existent dust. “And  _ I _ am Ryu Akamatsu, the  **Ultimate Sewing Master** .” Ryu, the obvious prick amongst their group, had a gray short sleeved shirt with a black overshirt on top. It wasn’t zipped up. His sleeves were rolled up and he had black military boots on. Black tights (which I had to stifle a choke upon seeing), but he...wore a red and black tutu (which I had to stifle another choke when I realized what he was wearing). He had a black choker and a matching black, leather necklace. His white hair was spiked. His eyes were a greenish yellow, it seemed. And scars ran along his right cheek. 

“Ooh, bravo,” Hitomi mocked. “Another fashion designer with their head shoved so far up their own ass they can’t see lights.” 

I choked once again, fighting the urge to laugh. Hitomi was vulgar and quite clearly a master of insulting people. Sass and sarcasm seemed to be a mastered language for her. 

“And what about you?” I asked the girl with fox accessories. The girl wore a dark blue jacket with an ever darker blue shirt underneath. Her jacket hung down just a little ways past her waist. She had a pale peach skirt and black ankle boots. 

She muttered something and I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. Could you say it again?” The girl muttered something again and I repeated my question. After getting another mumble, Hitomi snapped. 

“Oh, Jesus Christ. Her name’s Madoka Ronshaku, she’s the  **Ultimate Biochemist** ,” Hitomi groaned. “And she’s too quiet for almost anyone to hear.” 

Madoka glanced away towards the ground. With a weak voice, she apologized, “S-S-Sorry.” 

“Oh, no, it’s fine,” I reassured. 

“So, that’s seven  **Ultimates** so far,” Junji noted. 

Hitomi nodded. “That it is. Thinking of something, maps?” 

“My name’s Junji,” he corrected. 

“I don’t care.” 

“Ah. W-Well, I was just thinking, someone would have to have massive resources for something like this. And kidnapping  **Ultimates** exclusively?” 

“Were you all going to go to Raionhāto Academy?” I asked, adding on to Junji’s thought process. 

Hitomi’s eyes narrowed. “I was.” 

“As was I,” Renzo added. Ryu, Mami, and Madoka all were going to go to Raionhāto as well. Throughout it, Hitomi became more and more interested. Enough to where she put her book down and be interested in the conversation we were having. 

“So, someone kidnapped  **Ultimates** from Raionhāto Academy exclusively,” Junji went on. “Why?” 

“They might be holding us for leverage,” Ryu suggested. “Have Raionhāto Academy pay our mysterious kidnappers a blashphemous amount of money.” 

“Or they might just want to ruin the academy’s reputation,” Hitomi countered. “It’s a school for  **Ultimates** . If someone held something against them, kidnapping a class would utterly destroy the school for letting something happen to one of their classes.” 

“But it’d take time to plan something like this, right?” I asked. “To set up something like this. And to set up rooms tailored to us? They would have had to have been stalking us before kidnapping us.” 

Renzo looked thoughtful as he said, “And there might be more of us here. We were all going to be in the same class, probably, so they would have to kidnap the rest of us, right?” 

“Raionhāto Academy had their classes consist of sixteen people,” I pointed out. 

“So there should be at least nine more of us,” Renzo mused. 

“I saw one idiot running around somewhere else in this building,” Hitomi sighed. “So that counts up to eight.” 

I ran it over in my head. 

There were probably sixteen of us if we had all been taken from Raionhāto Academy. The motive was unknown, but we were all going to go the same year it seemed like. We were probably going to be classmates then. There were seven known-eight, according to Hitomi-and that left half of our class left. 

“Rin?” Junji cut into my thoughts. “What are you thinking?” 

“Not much. Just going over the facts. We were kidnapped, but I still want to know why.” 

“We’re probably going to find out soon,” Hitomi replied cryptically. She then returned to her book and tuned us out once more. 

“Well, I still want to meet the others before we do,” I said. “I mean, if we want to escape this place, then we have to work together and trust each other, right?” 

“Like that’s gonna work on a bunch of strangers,” Ryu scoffed. “But you do you, I guess. I have other things to focus on. Right, Madoka?” He sauntered up towards her, slid behind and whispered. 

Incredibly awkwardly, she slid away from him. “I-I’d rather, um, n-not,” she replied to whatever he had said. 

“Come on! It’ll be fun.” 

“I-I’d still, erm, r-rather n-not,” Madoka stammered quietly. 

“Why not?” Ryu asked, grinning like a moron. 

“Because you’re you?” Hitomi guessed, sounding bored. 

“N-N-No,” Madoka corrected. “I-It’s, u-uh, because...um…” She trailed off. It looked like the poor girl was on the verge of tears. 

I was about to step in, but Renzo had noticed it too and stepped in before me. “Enough, Ryu. She doesn’t want to do whatever you had planned.” 

“First of all, do you think I was asking you if you wanted to go to bed with me?” I covered my mouth, fighting a gag at that response. Hitomi raised a brow and looked away from her book. Renzo, to his credit, didn’t look flustered. “And secondly,” Ryu went on, “what say do you have on the matter?” 

“If I may,” Junji stepped in, “Ryu, Renzo does have a weapon. And, as the  **Ultimate Archer** , I bet it's safe to say he doesn’t miss.” Renzo sketched firing an arrow at Ryu’s heart. 

“Yeah, he’ll probably-” 

“Turn you into a pin cushion,” Hitomi interrupted. “And, yes, I’m aware of the irony of that statement.” 

“I was going to say ‘shoot you’,” Junji said. 

She shrugged. “Same difference.” 

“I would,” Renzo said. “To protect Madoka from you.” At that, Madoka smiled and scooted closer to Renzo like he’d protect her. But, as the  **Ultimate Biochemist** , Madoka could probably bring him down in seconds. The same thing for all of us. 

“Anywho,” I sighed, “I’m leaving. I’m going to find and greet everyone else. What about all of you?” 

“I suppose,” Hitomi sighed. “But I’m not going with you two.” 

“I wasn’t inviting you,” I replied, purposefully sounding arrogant. 

“Excellent.” Hitomi launched herself off the counter, book in hand, and swaggered out of the kitchen and God knows where. 

“I guess you and I should get moving.” I turned to Junji. 

“No snack then?” he teased. 

I punched his arm before I grabbed it and dragged him out, ignoring the rising voice of Ryu and Renzo’s verbal death match. It was hard to say who would win. I hoped Renzo. 

“They were an interesting group,” Junji commented once we were far enough away from the kitchen. It got a laugh and nod out of me. 

“That they were.” 

“So, where are we going?” I asked, staring around at the walls. “Have we already been down this way?” 

“No. But, if I had to guess, I’d say this is the outermost hallway of this building. I haven’t seen any junctions to lead us further out into the building. The only ways to go are either heading back further into the building and looking around, or continue to roam along the outer border of the building.” 

I thought about it only for a second. “Let’s give it a bit. One walk around the entirety of the building. If this is the outermost hallway, then maybe there’s an escape.” 

I was hopeful, but Junji looked doubtful. Regardless of whatever his doubts were, he nodded. “Then lead the way, Akabane.” 

I smirked and started down the hall. I walked. And walked. And walked. It felt like there was no end to the hall. No matter how far I walked, it wouldn’t stop going onwards. 

But, eventually and much to my relief, I saw a turn. Turn to one of the other outer hallways. That thought made me groan, but I continued regardless. 

I rounded the corner and was knocked over instantly. Junji had been knocked to the side. I felt a weight on my body as I gaped for air. I had landed wrongly and now couldn’t breath. I quickly caught my breath thankfully and looked down. A boy laid dazed on top of me. “Excuse me,” I panted, rousing him. He sat up, pushing himself up off me with his hands. He then saw me beneath him and jumped to his feet. 

“Oh, god! I’m so sorry!” 

Junji helped me to my feet as I said, “It’s fine. An hone-” 

He didn’t let me finish. “Dammit! That was so stupid! I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine,” I tried again. “It’s really not that big of-” 

“I am so, so sorry!” I apologized. 

“I get it!” I snapped. His eyes widened. 

“Sorry.” 

“Jesus. Okay, look, it’s okay. No harm, no foul. But, for the love of god, stop apologizing to me. You have said ‘sorry’ four times in the past ten-ish seconds. That’s too much.” 

“Sor-” He stopped himself and nodded. “Okay.” Now that he had finally shut up, I got a chance to take him in. It was an effort to not redden. He had a white sweat jacket that was unzipped, but he wore no shirt underneath it, leaving his abs and chest exposed. He had black and white athletic shorts and red and white running shoes. His eyes were a bright, vivid purple and his brown hair was long and unkempt. His odd outfit was finished off with a teal bandanna around his forehead. 

“What were you doing anyways?” Junji asked, glaring at the boy. 

“Running,” he responded with a small jump. “Right, I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Fujioka Arata, and I’m the  **Ultimate Runner** !” 

“Rin Akabane. I’m the  **Ultimate Historian** .” 

“Junji Kimoto,  **Ultimate Cartographer** .” 

Fujioka nodded. “That’s cool.” He clearly didn’t intend for it to sound rude, but I couldn’t help but feel annoyed with his tone about mine and Junij’s talent. I didn’t say anything though. Fujioka was clearly a jock, so what in the hell would he know about anything? 

“So what, exactly, does the  **Ultimate Runner** do? How is it a talent, is what I’m asking,” Junji clarified. “Not to be rude, though.” 

I felt that he did indeed mean to be mean though. Fujioka seemed to be believe him and explained. “I am the fastest runner in the world! I’ve been clocked at running at speeds up to 68.2 mph. Or 109.8 kph.” 

I gaped at him. “A car following the speed limit on a highway isn’t that fast.” 

“I know!” he saluted. “It’s amazing!” 

“Yeah, it is,” I begrudgingly agreed. 

Suddenly, music sounded around us. Fujioka glanced down a hallway that was near us. The music was coming from one of the classrooms. The door was open. 

Without looked at either Junji or Fujioka, I started down towards the door, letting the music flow into my body. It was beautiful. Then someone started singing. The voice was feminine. And her voice was beautiful, ethereal, enchanting. 

I reached the door and peeked inside. The room looked like it had been designed for a concert. There were only twenty seats staring up at the stage. At the stage where two pink haired girls stood. One sang and the other was playing the violin with her eyes closed. 

The singer had a simple getup. A red dress with a shawl like thing covering her shoulders. The dress fell to her knees. She had a black belt like band around her waist. A large rose was pinned to it. She had red gloves that didn’t entirely fit her, but went up to her elbows and stayed there. She had red, scarpin heels and a red choker. And then there were glasses with gray rimmed plastic. Her hair was long and pink and pushed to the side, letting you see her brown eyes. 

The other girl also had pink hair, but it covered half her face. She wore a black corset with pink and black frills coming out of the waist and falling halfway down her thighs. She had pink stilettos and black, leather wristbands on both of her wrists. She looked similar to the other girl, so I guessed that her eyes were brown, too. 

The unparalleled fear had started to crawl

And I had started to fall

Despair was a hopeful thing that I had wanted to miss

And I saw what I wanted to see

So take a blast

Into the past

And burn ‘em down

To the ground

We’ll burn something bright

Hope will be our light

Now let it burn tonight

We all peeked into the room and stared at the two of them. It was like a silent agreement between the three of us that had us etching our way into the room. I leaned on the seat, intent on listening the music that had cast a spell over me. 

Stars shine

And so do I

I burn like a raging wildfire

Cause I am no longer on the pyre

Fires rage

In a war of flames I see

That I’m fallin’ to the ground

What I’ll see, I don’t know

What I’ll see, I’m unsure

Stars shine

And so do I

I burn like a raging wildfire

Cause I am no longer on the pyre

Fires rage

In a war of flames I see

That I’m falling to the ground

What I’ll see, I don’t know

What I’ll see, I’m unsure

Take a blast

To the past

Burn ‘em down

To the ground

Burn something bright

Hope is our light

Now burn tonight

Stars shine

And so do I

Fires rage

In a war of flames I see

Burning to the sky

Burning a beacon of right

So take a blast

To the pa-

My hand had slipped and slammed into the seat’s arm; it was made of metal. I let out a bark of pain as I huddled the hand towards me. 

The singer had cut off as she stared surprised at the three people that had appeared from seemingly nowhere. “H-Hi!” she stammered. 

“Hi,” I ground out, hissing through the pain. 

Junji had a hand on my back. “Are you okay?” he asked worriedly. 

I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Been through worse.” 

“I know.” 

I gave him a wry smile as I walked over to the two girls. Seeing them now, they looked like sisters. Twins, if I were to guess. And the violinist did indeed have brown eyes. 

“Are you okay?” the violinist asked, staring at my hand. She seemed so calm and collected. It was actually a little unnerving. And what made it even more unnerving was how deadpan her eyes were. They weren’t glazed or glossy or distant, just dead yet observant. 

“I’ll be fine,” I said, repeating what I told Junji. 

It was impossible to tell if she was skeptical or not. She just nodded. 

“Ignore her,” the singer stepped in. “Ririko isn’t exactly the most talkative person in the world.” 

_ So the complete and utter opposite of Fujioka. Fun _ , I thought wryly. 

I changed the subject abruptly. “That singing was gorgeous. And the music, too,” I added with a nod at Ririko. 

The singer blushed. “It wasn’t that much. I just do what I love. And that’s singing.” 

“Well, you’re very good at it,” I complimented. 

“Astonishingly so,” Junji put in. 

She blushed. “Thank you, I guess.” 

“So, are you two sisters?” I asked, staring once again at the similarities between them. 

“Absolutely,” the singer nodded. “I’m Aoki Ishikawa!” 

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that you’re the  **Ultimate Vocalist** ?” I guessed. 

“ **Ultimate Singer** , actually.” 

“Is there a difference?” 

“No,” she shrugged. “But it’s the talent that was given to me by the  **Ultimate Initiative** before I was accepted into Raionhāto Academy.” 

“And what sort of things do you sing?” I asked. 

“Oh, all sorts of things! Opera, rap, pop, rock, pop-rock, pop-rap, rap-pop.” 

“Are those last two genres even genres? And what’s the difference?” Fujioka wondered. 

“There is no difference,” Aoki shrugged, and left it at that. 

“Ah, is that so?” Junji hummed. 

“Aoki can sing in any genre of music that she wishes,” Ririko explained. “And even created her own. Rap-pop. Which is basically is just pop-rock, but inverted.” 

“Sounds technical and not at the same time,” I commented. 

“It’s rather fun singing it, actually,” Aoki hummed. “You should try it sometime!” 

“And what about you?” Fujioka asked, as though Aoki hadn’t even spoken. “What about you?” 

Ririko sighed. “As Aoki said, we’re sisters. I’m Ririko Ishikawa, the  **Ultimate Violinist** .” 

“I can see why,” Junji complemented. Ririko didn’t move. 

“As I said, she doesn’t talk much,” Aoki said, rolling her eyes dramatically. 

I smiled as Aoki dropped onto the edge of the stage, sitting as she talked. “So what about you all?” 

“Rin Akabane,” I recited. “The  **Ultimate Historian** .” 

“Junji Kimoto, the  **Ultimate Cartographer** .” 

“Fujioka Arata, the  **Ultimate Runner** .” 

“It is certainly a pleasure to meet all of you,” Aoki beamed. It felt like it was directed more at me though. 

“And it’s a pleasure to meet you,” I responded. “But, still though, your voice is amazing. Not in a millennia could I sing that well.” 

Aoki shrugged, clearly embarrassed. “It’s not that spectacular.” 

“It is,” Ririko reassured. “Aoki got her talent from singing worldwide. Concerts, live streams, broadway, competitions, and practically anything else you can think of. She’s sung for movies and TV shows.” 

“And Ririko has created so many songs for us to sing,” Aoki added, lightly punching her sister in the leg. “She actually writes most of my lyrics. I throw in a few ideas here and there, but when it comes to writing lyrics, it's her specialty. Writing them so that they conform to whatever melody she has planned out.” 

“Does she makes the notes for you, too?” Junji inquired. 

“I do,” Ririko nodded. “Aoki can read music and sing it to a tee, but when it actually comes to writing music…” Ririko trailed off. Aoki gave her a playful glare. 

“Also,” Aoki went on, “Ririko has created the original soundtracks for dozens upon dozens of movies and TV. With her violin, she can weave a melody that just enraptures you.” 

“I’m aware,” I smiled. And I meant it. The violin had started first and it had sucked me in instantly. Saying it was gorgeous was an understatement for the sounds that came from Ririko’s violin. 

“And what about you, Rin? Junji? Fujioka?” Aoki asked. “How did you get your talents?” 

I went first. “Through a very long, very tedious expedition across the world. Digging up every possible story, legend, myth, and theory about Atlantis. And then I found it after searching for a year.” 

“You call taking a year to find  _ the _ Lost City of Atlantis a long time?” Aoki gasped. 

“I’d say that’s a relatively short time to find it considering all the other people that have spent time trying to prove its existence,” Ririko commented. 

Again, I shrugged. “It was a very long and grueling year for me.” 

“A year that Rin and I didn’t see each other,” Junji added. “The longest time we’ve gone without seeing each other.” 

“You two knew each other before this?” Fujioka asked. 

Junji nodded to him. “Yeah. Rin and I have known each other our entire lives.” 

I smiled, looking away. 

“And what about you?” Ririko inquired to Junji. “How did you gain your talent?” 

Junji cocked his head. “I’m the  **Ultimate Cartographer** , I’m not sure what you want. I make and study maps for a living. I made the most detailed map of the entire world, I suppose. It labels every single city, country, town, forest, desert, body of water, island, state, and practically everything else in the world.” 

“And you call that nothing?” Aoki gaped. “What is wrong with the two of you? You make big accomplishments sound like nothing. Finding the Lost City of Atlantis  _ and _ creating the most detailed map of the world to exist isn’t a little thing, ya know!” 

“And what about you Fujioka?” Ririko continued, as though her sister hadn’t just burst out at me and Junji. 

“O-Oh, um, I’m the fastest person in the world. My top speed so far is 68.2 mph.” 

“What?” Aoki gasped, leaning forward. “That’s insane!” 

“It is,” Ririko agreed. “Not to sound rude, though, would you mind leaving? Aoki and I still have to practice.” 

“You’re not planning on a concert, are you?” I asked. 

“No,” she shook her head. “But it’s best to not slack off. We don’t want to become rusty, after all.” 

Junji nodded. “Yeah, of course. Well, we’ll be on our way then.” 

“Nice to meet all of you!” Aoki waved as we walked out. 

“Likewise,” Junji responded as we stepped out into the hall, closing the door. 

Fujioka sighed. “Well, I’m going to be on my way.” 

“Running?” I inquired. 

“Yeah. All the way around...whatever this place is. It’s huge, by the way.” 

“Yeah, we’re aware,” Junji replied. 

“No, I mean that this place is completely enormous. I found an exit, too. But it was locked and I couldn’t find a way to unlock it. It’s just a door. A giant, metal door. I was there for a while before giving up and continuing my laps. It takes about...I dunno, four or five minutes for me to complete a lap around this place.” 

“There is an exit?” I gasped. 

“It’s locked,” he said again. “Sorry, Rin. But, that said, best of luck on finding a way out of here.” 

And then he took off, sprinting past and zooming down the very long hallway. 

“He was...interesting,” Junji commented. 

“Don’t like him?” I guessed. 

“I didn’t say that!” he defended. 

“Read between the lines, dear.” I patted his arm as I headed past the room that Ririko and Aoki were in. I walked further down the hall before making a turn. I walked some more before I entered a classroom. A classroom where a girl sat the front. Sat right on a desk, staring blankly at the wall. Or ceiling. It was hard to tell, as her head was angled upwards but it didn’t look like it was angled up enough to see much of the ceiling. 

Regardless, I walked over to her. Junji stayed over by the door, crossing his arms. 

I stopped and turned to him. “You coming?” I asked, raising my brows. 

“This is all you, Rin. You’re the talker between the two of us.” 

“You could still introduce yourself.” 

He shrugged. I frowned. He smiled with false innocence. I flipped him off as I headed over to the girl. Junji’s chuckle reaching me. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t help but grin. 

I stopped beside her and she turned her head towards me. I couldn’t help but feel that I had seen her somewhere as she said, “You and your friend over there are awfully loud. I was thinking.” 

“Oh, sorry.” 

“It’s okay.” She sounded so...bored. More than Ririko. Her face was dead. Like there was nothing in her. Like she was soulless. She wore a red dress that poofed out and feel only half way down her thighs. She had no sleeves and her shoulders were exposed. She had a black ribbon around her waist and another black ribbon around her neck. Her knee high silver boots seemed to be made of metal. They came to the sharpest point I’d ever seen. Her gray hair fell neatly out behind her with only her bangs almost falling into her green eyes. 

A moment of awkward silence hung over us. The girl just stared at me, unblinking. “U-Um…” I hummed. “Who are you? Y-Your name, I mean.” 

“I know what you meant. I know you’ve heard of me, as I’m Arisu Kataoka. The current  **Ultimate Actress** .” 

Arisu...Kataoka? 

Junji had stopped leaning against the wall and straightened his back. His arms had fallen to his side in dumbfounded shock. 

It certainly explained why I thought I recognized her from somewhere. Arisu Kataoka, the  **Ultimate Actress** . The best actress in the world. She always performed her own stunts, and any thing she was in instantly went up. It was impossible to tell that she was an actor with the way she just sucked you into the story. She made you  _ believe _ that she was the character she was portraying. 

“You’re... _ the _ Arisu Kataoka?” I gaped. “As in Arisu Kataoka, the best actress in the world?” 

“That’s a bit subjective, don’t you think?” she asked, her voice dead. 

“No!” I cried, fighting back the squeal of delight. Junji and I both loved her. We would sometimes watch marathons of her movies. We did not give a damn if the movie was wretched or amazing, we watched them for her. 

Arisu turned back to staring at the wall. “If you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing?” I pondered. 

“Not much. Thinking.” 

“About?” 

She didn’t answer me as she turned to Junji. “What are your names, anywho?” 

“O-Oh! I’m Rin Akabane! The  **Ultimate Historian** .” 

She ignored me and kept staring at Junji. 

“Junji Kimoto,” he gulped, clearly unnerved by the dead stare. “I’m the  **Ultimate Cartographer** .” 

She nodded. “Interesting.” 

“What?” 

“I’ve met a few people in our prison,” she said, turning back to the wall. “You want to know something? They are all terrible liars.” 

“What?” I blinked. “I don’t understand.” 

“I’m saying, a lot of the people here are lying. They aren’t good actors at all. They all make slight adjustments when saying something that indicates that they’re lying. Some of the adjustments, though, aren’t physical, but rather in the voice. One person here, while they were good, I’ll give them that, did make a few errors. It wasn’t the way they carried themselves, but with the way they acted. It’s convincing, I suppose, but to the trained eye you can see right through it.” 

“What are you talking about?” I asked, utterly baffled at this point. “ _ Who _ are you talking about?” 

“No one in particular. They will reveal themselves, in time. I don’t know their real name, or their real talent. I’m not even aware of what their motive was for changing everything about themselves. Maybe they’re uncomfortable around other people and use the facade as a way to hide away. I don’t know. Nor do I particularly care.” 

“Oh.” 

As I said that, the door was flung open and a haughty girl swaggered in. The girl wore a turquoise dress with short, shoulderless sleeves. She had black kitten heels that did nothing to slow her speedy, swaggering pace. Her long white hair fell half way down her back, and that was even with the blue ribbon keeping it up in a ponytail. 

She quickly gave Junji a pointed look with her brown eyes, scanning him, before huffing and moving over to Arisu and I. Arisu had looked over her shoulder, no expression on her face as the girl stopped in front of us. 

“Who the fuck are you?” she said by way of greeting. 

“Well, that’s rude,” Arisu commented. 

“Do you think I give a damn if I’m being rude to some of the dumbest looking bitches I’ve ever seen?” she snapped. 

I blinked, completely taken off guard. Vulgar, haughty, a complete bitch were the first impression thoughts that popped into my head. 

“Hey!” Junji stepped forward. “Don’t talk to them like-” 

“Why would I listen to you, dickweed?” she snapped. “You’re clearly not Prince Charming, so stop trying to act all high and mighty and heroic.” 

“Enough!” I snarled. “Don’t you  _ dare _ speak to him like that. Just who the hell are you anyways?” 

“Who the hell am I?” she repeated. “I’m the only one in this room who is going to be on top of the world someday. I’m the one who the entire world is going to know. Because I, the Rylan Lance, am the god damn  **Ultimate Heiress** .” 

I blinked. “Who now?” 

Even Arisu cocked her head. “I have never heard of you,” she said. 

“Neither have I,” Junji added. 

“Well, of course none of you have!” Rylan huffed. “I’m supposed to a secret!” 

“So that’s why you came in here, guns blazing, and told us who you are?” I summarized, confusion pouring through me. “Great secret keeper, you are.” 

Arisu then turned to me, head slightly crooked. I had no idea what she was thinking. 

“I told you, dumbass, because you all might as well know who your future queen will be.” 

“There’s a difference between ‘queen’ and ‘heiress’,” Junji informed her. 

“Tell me something I don’t know!” she snapped. “But, that said, there isn’t a thing that you know that I already know.” 

“I am positive I know maps better than you,” Junji smirked, slightly arrogant. 

“And I most definitely know history better than you,” I added. 

“Who give a flying fuck about history?” Rylan scoffed. At that, I had to fight the urge to claw her skin off.  _ No one _ insulted both Junji and the thing I love most. No one. 

Rylan must have seen the anger boiling in my eyes as she smirked. “What’s wrong? Have I hurt your precious little hobby? You must be the  **Ultimate Historian** , then, huh? Did I guess that right?” 

I fought back the snarl, urging myself to not jump at her. 

“Just get out,” Arisu advised. “It seems both Junji and Rin are feeling to urge to tear your vocal cords out. Considering how awful you’re being, I wouldn’t blame them in the slightest. You had it coming, in my eyes.” 

At that, Rylan did bristle. She hissed-actually  _ hissed _ -before turning around and stalking back out of the room, slamming the door while she did so. 

“What a bitch,” Junji muttered. 

I nodded in agreement. “Thanks, Miss Kataoka.” 

“Of course. You should go on ahead. You seem like you’re trying to meet everyone here.” 

“Right. Well, it was really, really nice to meet you, Miss Kataoka.” 

“Call me Arisu,” she said. “Miss Kataoka is far too formal. If we’re classmates, then we might as well be in a first name basis.” 

“R-Right. Of course. Well, I’ll see you later then, Arisu.” 

“Likewise.” 

Junji and I headed out of the classroom, leaving Arisu to her thoughts. Her very strange thoughts. Once we were outside and had closed the door, I turned to Junji, beaming. Rylan had been pushed from both our brains as Junji returned it. 

“Can you believe that?” I squealed quietly. 

“Arisu Kataoka,” he beamed. “Arisu Kataoka is our classmate!” 

“I know! The chances of that are amazing!” 

“We’re so lucky!” 

I nodded vigorously. 

“You two seem...excited.” I whipped around, staring straight ahead, expecting to see someone. I didn’t. Slowly, I angled my head downwards. A boy stood there. A very, very short boy. He must have only been up to my waist. If that, even! 

The boy wore a dark gray sweatshirt and had a sea green scarf draped over his shoulders, but it wasn’t wrapped around his neck in anyway. He had light gray jeans, but I’m pretty sure they were actually shorts instead of actual jeans. He had green and white sneakers. His short, almost non-existent hair was brown. The small goatee he sported held the same shade of brown. His eyes were an icy blue. 

“O-Oh, hi there,” I stammered. “Y-Yeah, we are. Junji and I adore Arisu Kataoka and she’s just in there.” I pointed to in the classroom. 

“Arisu Kataoka!?” he gasped. “The real one?” 

I nodded in confirmation. “In the flesh.” 

“Oh, wow.” He blinked. “Never thought that would happen.” 

“I know, right?” Junji agreed. “Anyways, who are you?” 

“Hm? Oh, I’m Naomi Ozawa. You?” 

“Junji Kimoto. I’m the  **Ultimate Cartographer** . I assume you’re an  **Ultimate** , too, because everyone else we’ve met has been one.” 

Naomi nodded. “Yeah, I am. I’m the  **Ultimate Hypnotherapist** . What about you?” he asked me. 

“I’m the  **Ultimate Historian** and my name is Rin Akabane.” 

“Hm.” 

“Um, Naomi, what do you even do with your talent?” I asked. “Not to be rude, or anything!” I quickly added. 

“It’s not a problem,” he assured. “As the  **Ultimate Hypnotherapist** , I perform hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is helping people with mental problems, basically. Mental health, amnesia, breaking bad habits, you name it. I myself use a variety of different methods. I have never had a patient who hasn’t recovered from whatever ails them. It’s how I got my talent.” 

“Wow,” I breathed. “You’re like a savior!” 

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Naomi laughed shyly. “But I do help a lot of people. Some people are turned away by my being a teenager and all, but that will go away. In time. Until then, I will continue to hone my craft and help as many people as I can.” 

“You certainly have a plan for the future,” Junji noted. 

“You don’t?” Naomi asked. “I’m surprised. You seem like the person to have a plan for your future. You both do.” 

“Being a cartographer can take you far, but only so far. Nothing world changing. Not like with Rin’s talent.” 

“Don’t downplay yourself,” I scolded. 

“And what about you?” Naomi asked. “Your plans? Accomplishments so far?” 

“Plans for the future?” I breathed. “I have no clue, honestly. One of my accomplishments though was finding the location of the real Excalibur. And thus proving the existence of Camelot. Of course, the real sword was different from anything that the legends painted it as. It was not magical. No, it was made of a series of elements that can cut through materials like paper. It was also imbued with extremely advanced technology. Like technology from our time period. The augmentations that it had been given allowed it to be set on fire. And the material it was made of kept it from melting, no matter how hot it got.” 

“Wait wait wait!” Naomi interrupted. “Take a step back. It was  _ you _ who found Excalibur?” 

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Why?” 

“Well, I had heard that it had been found. One of my friends is a big history geek and utterly freaked out when it was revealed that Excalibur had been found and proof of Camelot’s existence was revealed. He was a lover of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable, so it made him even more excited. So was it you who also found out that Robin Hood was real?” 

I nodded. “Yep. That discovery was very exciting. I just found it a few months ago.” 

“I know.” 

“And that is something that I am ever going to do,” Junji laughed, shaking his head with his hands on his hips. “Nothing world changing for me.” 

“Oh, please,” I scoffed. “I’d say creating the world’s most detailed map to have ever existed is one damn amazing accomplishment.” 

“Maybe,” Junji conceded. “But not world changing.” 

I glowered and Junji shrugged. “It’s the truth,” he said. “I don’t feel bad about it, Rin. So don’t worry.” 

“Right.” 

“Anywho-” Naomi had cut into my thoughts. I had completely forgotten he was there. “-I’m going to go and meet Arisu Kataoka, it seems. Still though, best of luck, you two.” 

“Best of luck about what?” I asked. 

“Investigating this place,” he responded plainly. “I can tell that you two have been or will be trying to find a way out of here. And whoever is behind this. So best of luck in those endeavors.” 

I smiled faintly. “Thank you.” 

“No problem,” Naomi shrugged. “Well, bye then.” 

“See ya,” I waved, walking behind Junji as Naomi entered the room that Arisu was in. 

Junji and I walked far. Far away as we searched for someone else. But we failed to find anyone for a while. Until we came across another classroom with a door that was slightly ajar. I didn’t hesitate as I barged past Junji and into the class. 

A boy was at the front, standing in front of a chalkboard of all things, doing such complex math equations that I couldn’t even begin to fathom. 

“Umm.” I didn’t know where to begin. 

“Yes?” the boy asked, stopping what he was doing to turn around. He had a yellow and white button up shirt, but the last two buttons were unbuttoned. He had brown and black with yellow lining steel toe boots. He had baggy tan cargo pants and red hair pushed to the left side of his head. “Who are you two?” 

“O-Oh, I’m the  **Ultimate Historian** , Rin Akabane.” 

“How fascinating.” The sarcasm and lack of interest was obvious. “And you, string bean?” 

Junji, to his credit, didn’t bristle as he said, “Junji Kimoto. The  **Ultimate Cartographer** . And you are?” 

The boy snorted. “You’re seriously asking  _ me _ that? Why, I’m the smartest person in the entire world. I’m the one and only Etsuya Ikeda. The world’s greatest mathematician, as I am the  **Ultimate Mathematician** .” 

“Bit dramatic, don’t you think?” I asked, utterly unimpressed. “And pretentious.” 

Etsuya shrugged, dropping the act. “Eh, it’s fun to mess with people. No, but seriously, the name’s Etsuya Ikeda. I’m the  **Ultimate Mathematician** . People call me the smartest person in the world because of my talent, so yeah...bygones, ya know?” 

“Indeed,” I replied. “Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘let bygones be bygones’, though?” 

“It’s come up in passing, yes. Normally I just ignore it and get back to my maths.” 

“Sounds exhilarating,” Junji commented, his voice drier than the stones we were standing on. 

“It is. Although, I think I’ve heard of you, Junji Kimoto. You created the most detailed map in the world, yes?” 

“That’s true. I needed some help getting the dimensions for something so large, though.” 

“I was-and still am-happy to have been of service.” 

Junji straightened. “Wait,  _ you’re _ the one who gave me the dimensions?” 

“It wasn’t hard to work out, honestly. But I’m aware that’s my talent speaking. And you, Rin, I’ve heard of you, too.  **Ultimate Historian** and all that. Very impressive, the things you’ve done.” 

I fought the urge to sulk backwards and out of the room. The compliment felt wrong with his sultry purr and relaxed smile. “Thanks” was all I could muster out. 

“Anywho, I assume you’re wondering: what in the hell would a mathematician do as an  **Ultimate Talent** ? Well, let me tell you. 

“As the  **Ultimate Mathematician** , I can and have solved the problems the world has considered impossible. I have solved the supposed mathematical anomalies that exist and the mathematical theories. I have proved and disproved so many of them. And all the while I was wondering what people found to be so damn hard about them.” 

“Maybe it’s because you’re an  **Ultimate** ?” Junji suggested wryly. 

“Oh, undoubtedly.” He waved his arm lazily at the chalkboard behind him. “I am currently working to solve another mathematical mystery. Quite the puzzler, this one is. I’ll solve it, though. In time. I had start from scratch though. Whoever kidnapped us decided to not bring my work so far along with us. Thankfully, I remember most of it. But this inconvenience has set me back a bit.” 

“Thankfully for me,” I said, “I wasn’t looking into solving any other historical mysteries at the time of my kidnapping.” 

“And I wasn’t putting together any other ridiculously detailed maps,” Junji sighed. 

“Ah, yes, maps,” Etsuya hummed sarcastically. “The epitome of a riveting time.” Junji glowered as Etsuya continued. “Anywho, it was nice to meet the two of you. I guess. Now, if you don’t mind my bluntness, would you mind getting the fuck out of here. I have work I need to do.” 

“What a generous way to dismiss people,” I frowned. 

Etsuya shrugged, a lazy grin still on his face. “Meh. Just let me get back to my work. I have been working my ass off to find the answer to this problem for weeks, so I’d appreciate it to be allowed to get back to my work.” 

“Right. Of course. Well, goodbye then, Etsuya,” I said, backing out of the room. “It was nice to meet you.” 

“It wasn’t for me” was all Etsuya said as we left. 

Junji was practically fuming by the time we were far away from Etsuya. “Did he piss you off?” I teased. 

“Don’t act like you weren’t disturbed by him!” Junji defended. “He was too…” 

“Perfect?” I suggested. “Laid back? Undisturbed?” 

He nodded. “Yeah, all of those things. He threw me off. Rylan is a bitch but she didn’t make your blood boil and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.” 

“I guess. He was...off,” I admitted. “Regardless, we’re going to have to deal with him. So we might as well accept the oddness.” 

“I suppose. Wait, what do you mean ‘ _ perfect _ ’?” 

I snorted, elbowing him. “Nothing, Junji.” 

“Not talking about the creep then,” Junji said, moving past Etsuya, “there should still be two people left,  _ ja _ ?” 

I nodded. “If we were all a class at Raionhāto, then yes. They had the limit of sixteen people to class after all, and we’ve only met twelve of them. Fourteen, counting us.” 

“And where haven’t we looked?” Junji asked, frowning slightly. “As far as I’m aware, we have explored all of this place. Where else could they be?” 

“They might not have woken up yet,” I reasoned. “They’re probably awake now, I’d wager. So let’s just look around, okay? It might help us memorize the layout of this place a bit more.” 

Junji nodded and set off in the direction opposite of Etsuya. 

We kept walking around until we actually found a hall we hadn’t seen before. If it had appeared or we just missed it, I didn’t know. Junji and I still went down the hall anyway. 

There were several doors, but only one had a sign.  Pool was all it said. 

“Glad out captors thought to give us a pool,” Junji mumbled as I opened the door and went inside. There was, indeed, a large pool in the center of the room. A large, ornate chandelier that came to a point hung right above the middle of the pool. White pool seats surrounded the entire pool. Sixteen seats. For sixteen students. Sixteen classmates. And in two of the seats sat two boys. They sat across from each other, talking. 

I glided over to them, Junji trailing behind. I could tell he was getting more and more pissy as we met more people. He often got like that, annoyingly. But I didn’t focus on it too much at the moment as I stopped in front of them. 

One of the boys turned to me with a lazy smile. “Hi there,” he greeted. 

“Hi.” 

An awkward silence hung over us. None of us knew where to continue. A simple greeting seemed...like a goodbye too. God, it was awkward. Thankfully, Junji broke the silence. “This is a little abrupt, but who are you two? Name’s and talents?” 

“Talents?” the other boy asked. 

“Your  **Ultimate Talent** ,” I clarified. “I know you have one. All sixteen of us do.” 

“Right, sixteen Raionhāto Academy students are here,” the first boy noted. The boy wore a simple brownish red short sleeved shirt with matching shorts. He had gray and red sneakers and black gloves. He had short, bright red hair and intelligent brown eyes. 

“Yeah,” I nodded. 

He looked at his knees, a thoughtful expression on his face. The second boy twirled his fingers together as he spoke. “My name’s Jotaro Yukimura. I don’t think I should even be called this, but I’m called the  **Ultimate Paramedic** .” Jotaro had...a fitting outfit. He had a blue short sleeved shirt with the star of life sewn over his heart. He also had a badge on his right sleeve. His shorts were the same color as his shirt. He had gray sneakers and blue latex gloves. His brown hair was long, but it wouldn’t really have covered anything on his face as most of it was already covered. He had a gray square eye patch on his left eye and a white wrapping covering his mouth. The wrapping was oddly similar to that of mummy wrappings. Only his right eye, which was purple, was visible through all the coverings on his face. 

“What do you mean you don’t think you should be called that?” I asked. 

“Well, I just don’t feel as though I deserve the title. Yes, I’m a paramedic and a lot of people say I’m like a professional, but I’m still just learning. I still prefer to shadow the actual professions with years of medical training.” 

“Well, you’re the doctor we now have here in our enigmatic little home,” Junji said. 

“You call this place little?” I raised my brows and he shrugged. 

“I’m not a doctor,” Jotaro corrected. “I’m a paramedic. I keep people alive until they can get to a doctor.” 

“You are still the only one with medical training,” Junji said dismissively. “No matter what you say.” 

“And what about you?” I asked the first boy. 

“Well, funny thing about that. My name’s Mokichi Ikehata, I remember that, but my  **Ultimate Talent** ...heh. Yeah, I have no clue what  **Ultimate** I am.” 

I blinked, astonished and confused. “You don’t...remember?” 

“Not a clue. Not only did I forget how I got here, I also forgot what my  **Ultimate Talent** is.” 

“Can you even forget a talent?” Junji gaped. 

“You wouldn’t think so, but you quite clearly can. I am living proof.” 

“How is that even possible?” I breathed. “Your talent is a part of you, isn’t it?” 

“That’s what I thought,” Mokichi sighed. “But I have no clue what my talent is. How it’s possible, I don’t know. But, if I had to guess, they didn’t erase my talent, per se. I don’t think you can exactly erase a part of someone without changing the foundation of their brain and personality which is part of the reason for talents. What I think our kidnappers did, was simply erase my talent’s name from my brain.” 

“What would be the purpose in that?” Jotaro inquired. 

“I don’t have the faintest idea. But erasing my talents name might make my talent...less effective. I don’t know what I can do, so that would dull the edge of my talent.” 

“That makes sense,” Junji nodded. 

“They might have erased it because it’s a threat to them,” I suggested. “You might have this super badass talent that was erased by our kidnappers because it was a danger to them.” 

Mokichi nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. But pushing that aside, who are you two? Jotaro and I have introduced ourselves, but you haven’t introduced yourself.” 

“Rin Akabane. The  **Ultimate Historian** .” 

“Rin Akabane?” Mokichi repeated. “As in the person who found Atlantis? And Excalibur? And Robin Hood?” 

“In the flesh.” 

“Wow,” he breathed. “Never expected that to happen.” 

“And you?” Jotaro asked Junji. 

“I’m the  **Ultimate Cartographer** . Junji Kimoto.” He didn’t seem at all fazed by the lack of enthusiasm at the revelation of his talent. 

And we quickly moved on from that. 

“Why do you think we were kidnapped?” Mokichi mused. “Could it be for money? Ransome against Raionhāto?” 

Before any of us could respond, the monitor screen located in the corner of the room switched on. Static danced across the screen, but a child like voice, dripping with malice and despair spoke clearly. “Puhuhuhuhuhuhuhu,” it laughed. “Have you all met each other good and proper? That’s wonderful! Now, I’m sure you're all wondering what you’re doing here. Well, if you want an answer, head on over to the pool. I’m sure you all can find your way there. Arrive safely. We don’t want any of you to die yet.” 

_ Yet. _ That goddamn sentence.  _ We don’t want any of you to die yet. _ What the hell did that even mean? 

Jokes on me, I guess. Ask for the ugly truth and you can see the depths of grotesqueness. And that’s exactly what I saw. 

Hitomi was the first to arrive at the pool. “Well, look who it is. Rin, Junji, the not good doctor, and the mystery chick.” 

“I’m sorry?” Mokichi choked. 

Hitomi didn’t answer as she came to a stop. “Do any of you have an idea who is behind this? Find anything in your wanderings?” I could tell she was addressing me and Junji. 

“No, unfortunately,” I replied as Fujioka came bursting in, sliding to a stop as he entered. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Hitomi wondered, raising a brow. 

“Hm? Nothing,” he answered. “Does something seem wrong?” 

“You just burst in here like you were being chased by a demon,” she frowned. “How in the hell do you expect someone to react?” 

He shrugged. “I dunno.” 

“Clearly.” 

Aoki, Ririko, and Arisu then walked in. “And here are the emotionless broads,” Hitomi groaned, eyeing Ririko and Arisu. Ririko eyed her back while Arisu didn’t react. 

Aoki sort of bounced over to me. “Hey, Rin!” she greeted. 

“Hey, Aoki,” I responded cheerily. 

“Where’s your violin?” Junji asked, staring at Ririko. 

“I left it in the music room,” she replied. “It’s more convenient to keep it over there where there was a stand already.” 

“So that is where you got the violin,” Hitomi hummed. “I figured as much. Cause it was either that or our kidnapper gave it to you. Which wouldn’t make sense as I don’t have anything that I normally carry around.” 

“What would the  **Ultimate Librarian** have to normally carry around?” Mokichi inquired. 

Hitomi smiled over her shoulder as she glanced at him. “Some special things.” 

“More books?” I asked. 

She turned to me. “Basically. My favorite books, and the books I’ve written.”   
“You’re an author?” Arisu asked. “You didn’t mention that earlier when you entered my room.” 

“I wasn’t aware it was your room. But, yes, I’ve written some books. They weren’t huge best sellers, but I’m still happy with the way they turned out.” 

Rylan then swaggered in with Naomi trailing behind her. 

“Great,” Hitomi glowered. 

“Don’t say ‘great’ sarcastically around me, bitch!” Rylan snapped. 

“The only bitch around here is you,” Hitomi responded, dismissing Rylan with a flick of her wrist. “Besides, this is getting ridiculous. We have you, the bitch, the emotionless broads, discount P!nk, the history geek, maps galore, the mystery chick, the not so good doctor, runner boy, and Mr. Hypnosis behind you there.” 

“Have you just been thinking of nicknames for us while we were all here?” I asked, raising a brow. 

“Is that a problem?” she hummed. 

“No, not at all.” 

“That’s what I thought.” 

“Could you please stop calling me Mystery Chick,” Mokichi pleaded. 

“Why in the world would I do that?” 

“Hm, let’s see. Well, for starters, I’m not a girl, I’m a boy. I’m not crossdressing either. Are  _ you _ hiding your gender, Hitomi?” 

Hitomi frowned. “Why in the hell would I do that? What exactly would a librarian have to hide? And how would faking my gender even help me hide? Furthermore, what do I have to hide from?” 

“Our kidnappers,” Etsuya responded, waltzing into the pool area. 

“Brilliant. The pompous math geek.” 

Etsuya bowed. “At your service, book brain.” 

“What in the hell is happening here?” I whispered to Junji. 

“No clue, but I kinda want to see what happens,” he answered. “Don’t you?” 

“Honestly, I’m kind of afraid to see where this will lead. Hitomi is awfully aggressive to everyone that’s coming in.” 

“It’s hot and terrifying at the same time,” Junji confessed. I scowled at him and gave me an innocent smile. 

“We’re still waiting on four people,” Arisu noted, changing the topic. “Madoka, Mami, Renzo, and Ryu.” 

“Right,” Etsuya dipped his head. “ **Ultimate Actress** . You can probably hear or read something once and remember it perfectly for ages.” 

“That’s true,” she nodded. “A trick I picked up while memorizing lines for movies and TV shows.” 

“Where are the others?” Jotaro asked quietly. “We’re missing four people still.” 

“One of them is the unlucky one,” Mokichi pointed out. “If she’s with the others, then it's probably taking them a while to get here because of her luck.” 

“Then they have the pervert following them,” Hitomi added. 

“How do you know that?” Aoki inquired. 

“Just a guess. But I doubt Ryu would let Madoka out of his sight. And then Renzo also wouldn’t let her out of his sight.” 

“So she’s being watched by a pervert and a person who could probably kill all of us with ease,” I summed up. 

“Basically.” 

“And I assume we’re going to have to wait here until the others arrive,” grumbled Etsuya. “Brilliant.” 

“I wouldn’t consider it too much of a problem,” Junji countered. “We still all haven’t talked as a group yet.” 

“That’s what we’ve been doing for a bit now!” Rylan snapped. 

“I mean,” Junji snarled, “we haven’t really gotten the chance to all talk together as a group without bringing up whatever is going on here.” 

“That  _ has  _ been the only topic of discussion,” Jotaro agreed. 

“That’s because it’s the most pressing matter,” Hitomi fired. 

As she finished saying that, Ryu staggered in, rubbing his shoulder. “What happened to you?” Fujioka asked, clearly concerned. 

“I’ll tell you what happened!” he pouted. “That bastard Renzo attacked me.” 

“For making a move on Madoka.” Mokichi had said it with such conviction that it wasn’t even a question, but a fact. 

“Yeah, so what?” Ryu protested. “He’s still the bastard who shot me.” 

“He shot you!?” Jotaro gasped, getting to his feet. He started to rush over to Ryu, but Hitomi stopped him. 

“With a blunt arrow,” she said. “If he really shot you, you’d have an arrow sticking out of your shoulder, or you’d be bleeding all over the place. As neither is happening, you were shot with a blunt arrow. If you were even shot at all.” She then turned to Jotaro, who was staring at her, his one visible eye wide. “As for you, Jotaro, your desperation to help others is apparent, but unnecessary right now. None of us are going to be hurt. Well, yet anyways. We just have to wait for the other three to get here so that we can finally learn what all this is about.” 

Jotaro sat back down across from Mokichi and we waited. We sat and waited for what felt like ages before Madoka, Mami, and Renzo finally arrived. Ryu was livid upon seeing Renzo, but backed down when he saw the glare of death from Renzo. 

“So now we learn about what the hell is happening here, right?” Rylan demanded. 

“That you do!” the child like voice from earlier sang. “Welcome, welcome, welcome all to the  **Ultimate Temple for the Gifted Generation** ! I hope you are enjoying you’re new home. It was built with such care and compassion, too!” 

Suddenly, the lights went out and we were plunged into darkness. I heard Mami scream somewhere from inside the void. 

A spot light came on, shining on the balcony above us. And there, sitting passively on the pedestal, was a stuffed teddy bear. The right side of it was black and the left was white. It’s right eye was red and angled upwards, while the left eye was simply a black dot. It was small, it’s limbs more stumps than limbs. It had an uncanny resemblance to a bear with its round ears. It also sported a sadistic grin. 

“What the hell is that?” I wondered aloud. 

“That isn’t the proper way to treat your headmaster,” it cooed. 

“Headmaster?” Hitomi repeated. “That’s what...wait, what the fuck are you?” 

“I, my students, am the headmaster of the  **Ultimate Temple for the Gifted Generation** . I am Monokuma!” 

Silence met the thing’s words. “That’s all?” Monokuma cocked his head. “Huh, I’ve always gotten more of a reaction. You kids aren’t fun at all.” 

“What is going on?” Jotaro whimpered as the lights turned back on. They stung my eyes that had quickly adjusted to the darkness with only a little light making its way down to us. 

“We’ll get to that soon,” Monokuma replied cheerily. 

“This place is a temple?” I asked. 

“That it is.” 

My eyes turned to the pool. “You’ve defiled this place by putting that there. By doing all of this.” 

“Oh, relax. As I said, this place was  _ built _ for you sixteen cretins.” 

“It was built for us?” Mokichi mused. 

“Indeed it was. By loving, hopeful hands.” 

“Cut the bullshit already,” Hitomi snapped. “What is the point of this place?” 

“Well, aren’t you testy,” he teased. 

“You’ll find out just how testy I can be if you don’t start giving us some fucking answers.” 

“Well, if you insist,” Monokuma sighed. “Okay, listen up!” he cried, jumping to his feet and spreading his arms wide. The red eye glowed bright. “This is where many of you will spend the rest of your days. Because this temple is your new home.” 

“Like hell we’re living here for the rest of our lives!” Rylan snapped. A sentiment that we all agreed on. 

“Sorry to disappoint then. But you are only here for one reason. And you’ll spend the rest of your lives here until that purpose has been accomplished. Although, for some of you, that may be a relatively short time. Or, who knows, it could be for all of you.” 

“Meaning?” Renzo demanded. “I have no intention of spending the rest of my life here!” 

“Well, too bad. But hey, I’ll let you in on a little secret. There is a way out of here.” 

“I’m afraid to ask, but what is it?” Ririko inquired, taking a step closer to Aoki. Loving sister till the end. 

“Murder one of your classmates and you get to leave.” 

Time froze. 

“Wh-Wh-What?” I stammered. 

“You heard me,” he sang. “Murder one of your classmates and you get to leave. Of course, you have to get away with it, too.” 

“No,” I hissed. “There in no way in hell that I’m murdering someone!” 

“Is that so?” he cocked his head. “Are you sure about that, History Geek? It’d be a shame to let our Killing Game go to waste though.” 

“K-Killing Game?” Madoka repeated, taking a step closer to Renzo. 

“Yep! That is, after all, the only reason that you’re here.” 

“What do you mean?” Naomi demanded. 

“The only reason you’re here is for the Killing Game.” 

As he said that, I wasn’t even sure if any of us were breathing. We were all too stunned about what we were being told that we couldn’t even comprehend what was being told to us. And that despair that trickling through the air, pulling each of us into its cold embrace. 

“And why would we kill for you?” Hitomi asked, her temper clearly on a tight leash. 

“Why?” Monokuma cocked his head. “You aren’t killing for  _ me _ , you’re killing for  _ you _ .” 

“M-M-Mami has a question,” Mami stammered. “What do you mean that we have to get away with the murder?” 

“Finally!” Monokuma breathed. “I was worried that none of you were going to bring that up. Although, I’m surprised that miss third person over there was the one to bring that topic back into the discussion.” 

“Just get on with it,” Hitomi grumbled. 

“Okay then! After someone puts someone else in the ground, then an investigation will be held for however long I see fit. When I say so, you will all head to the trial grounds where you will try to find whodunnit. You must find the blackened student amongst all the spotless students. After coming to a decision, the spotless vote for who the blackened is. If the majority of you gets it right, then only the blackened will be punished. If you get it wrong though...well, all the spotless students will be punished instead and the blackened has earned the right to graduate from the  **Ultimate Temple for the Gifted Generation** and can go home.” 

“I can wager a guess, but what do you mean by punishment?” Hitomi asked. 

“Well, put into simpleton terms, it’s an execution.” 

“A-A-A what?” Aoki gasped. 

“There is no way any of us would risk that!” Rylan protested. “No one is stupid enough to risk their own death to please you, you high tech Build-A-Bear reject.” 

“I am not a Build-A-Bear reject,” Monokuma replied dully. Then, with a sudden and startling amount of vigor, he went on, “But yes, you will. The Killing Game will always happen because that’s just nature. No matter what you do, you will always get punished for something or another. And killing is natural. Those foolish little notions of killing being wrong are just laws in the outside world, but there are no laws here that forbid that. In actuality, the laws here accept killing. But you still must be punished for crimes.” 

“What is the purpose of all this?” Mokichi demanded, staring Monokuma down. 

“The purpose. Does it matter?” 

“Of course it matters!” I exclaimed. 

“Oh. Well, then we’ll get to that later.” 

“And what topic are we moving to now?” Fujioka asked testily. 

“I assume it has something to with the fact that this is called a Killing  _ Game _ ?” Mokichi guessed. 

“Right you are!” Monokuma cried. 

“If this a game,” Arisu mused, “then there will be rules.” 

“Rules that we have to follow or we’ll die,” Junji added. 

Monokuma nodded. “Damn straight, skipper!” 

“Then lay them on us,” Ryu said. 

“Before that-” Monokuma began, but was cut off by Hitomi. 

“You sure do dodge a lot.” 

“It’s not dodging!” he protested. “There’s a lot to explain. And, getting back to the topic at hand, I must give you something special.” 

The door behind us opened and a cart was shoved inside by an unseen person or force. It came rolling to us before Ririko placed her hand against it, stopping it. 

“Well, go on then!” Monokuma urged. 

Hesitant, I took a step towards it. On the cart, fat files with our names on them sat there. When I picked up the file with my name on it, I slowly opened it and pulled out an electronic object the size of a phone. “What is this?” Renzo demanded. 

“It’s something special. A present. Your Student Handbook, if you will. But I call them E-handbooks.” 

“And their purpose?” I asked, not sure if I wanted an answer or not. 

But Monokuma delivered me one anyways. “Turn it on and find out.” It wasn’t exactly a helpful answer, but I wasn’t sure what else I expected. Something inside of me had told me that he would just make me find out for myself. 

Hesitantly, I pressed the power button and turned my E-handbook on. 

Rin Akabane

Talent: Ultimate Historian

Gender: Female

My picture was displayed next to the basic info about me. But there was another page. I was hesitant, but swiped anyways and started reading. 

Likes: Ancient weapons, history, Europe, assassins

Dislikes: Vandalism, theft, and destruction of ancient artifacts, speeches, lies

Then there was a third and final page. The third page was the rules for the Killing Game. 

1: No harm must come to Headmaster Monokuma

2: No one is allowed to swim in the pool at night

3: Nighttime is from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM

4: The water is turned off at nighttime

5: At nighttime, you can only sleep in one of the rooms of the Killing Game participants

6: In order to graduate, you must kill one of your classmates

7: The investigation begins after three or more spotless students discover a body

8: Monokuma will not tamper with a crime scene

9: After a certain amount of time of investigating, a class trial will be held

10: If a blackened is found guilty at a class trial, they alone will be punished

11: In the event that two blackeneds are voted upon, both will be executed as long as one of the answers is correct

12: If the blackened is not found, all the spotless students will be punished

13: Skipping the class trial will result in the skipper’s punishment

14: A person is only allowed to kill two classmates at a time

15: If there are two blackeneds at once, then only the first to become a blackened will be punished and the other will be considered as a spotless student

16: If any of these rules are broken, then the student responsible will be punished accordingly

17: Any new rules may be added at a moment’s notice

I lowered the E-handbook, horrified by what I read. It wasn’t that the rules in of themselves that were scary, but it was what they held in place. What they represented. And that they said this was real. This quickly unfolding nightmare was real. 

“Wh-What is the point in any of this?” I asked, horrified. “Why would you do this?” 

“Hm? Why would I do this?” Monokuma asked. “Well, I feel as though that should be rather simple. The point of the Killing Game is your despair.” Monokuma broke into a manic laughter before vanishing. 

“Wh-Why is, u-uh, th-this h-happening?” Madoka stammered out, shaking like a leaf in the wind. 

I shook my head, at a loss for words. 

“So what now?” Junji wondered aloud. 

Mokichi cocked his head. “What do you mean?” 

“What are we going to do now?” he repeated. “We know why we’re here, but there is no way in hell that we would ever go through with this. None of us would actually become a murderer, right?” 

An uneasy silence hung over us. The purpose of this twisted game was very prominent. But so was the lure to escape. Save for Junji and myself, and Ririko and Aoki, no one here knew each other. None of us knew what someone could be capable of or what they would be willing to do to escape. That the temptation to escape this accursed place was very...well, tempting. 

“Right now,” Hitomi sighed, “we investigate. I know we’ve all been wandering around. Or most of us, at least. But we all should investigate this place, tear it apart and try to find something that could help us.” 

“Shouldn’t we fight him, though?” Aoki asked. 

“The rules say we can’t bring harm to Monokuma,” I countered. “If we do, we’ll be killed.” 

“What if we just live here for the rest of our lives?” Jotaro asked. 

“With a bunch of strangers?” Rylan snorted. “In your dreams.” 

“We’d come to sort of like each other in time,” Arisu pointed out. “But this would put our careers on hold.” 

“We can’t do the Killing Game, though!” I snapped. “No matter how desperate we become, we can’t ever do the Killing Game. So, yeah, we should just do as Hitomi said. Investigate some more. This place was designed after a temple. Or a series of different temples. So there will be secret rooms and areas everywhere. And most temples usually have a secret way out.” 

“So we just find the secret exit and leave?” Fujioka asked. “It’s that easy?” 

“Well, it’s not easy,” I countered. “It’ll be incredibly hard to find. But, if we do, then we can escape.” 

“Then let’s get investigating,” Hitomi finished. “We should travel in groups of two, as well. For safety reasons.” 

“In two hours,” Mokichi added, “we should all meet up in the dining hall. I trust we all know where it is, right?” We all nodded. 

“Then split into your groups and start to investigate,” Hitomi commanded. 

We all nodded in agreement and went our separate ways throughout the temple. The  **Ultimate Temple for the Gifted Generation** . Junji was with me, naturally, and I was determined to escape. There was no way in hell that I would let a Killing Game happen. I was never ever going to let something so wicked and fucked happen. There was no way. And there was no way I was going to let anyone die. 

I vowed it upon my very soul. 

**_Survivors: 16_ **


	2. Part 1: Hope to not Despair

It's Saturday, and that means that it's time for a new chapter. However, there isn't an easy place to put Part 1's title and "chapter 1" in the same spot, so I'm doing it like this (for all six parts). What I will also give you is the list of all the characters who are alive and dead. But, as part 1 is just starting, no one is actually dead yet. So here is the character list of everyone who is in this Killing Game~

Rin Akabane (Ultimate Historian)

Ryu Akamatsu (Ultimate Sewing Master)

Hitomi Mihara (Ultimate Librarian)

Rylan Lance (Ultimate Heiress)

Renzo Takaki (Ultimate Archer)

Mami Nagase (Ultimate Unlucky Student)

Fujioka Arata (Ultimate Runner)

Jotaro Yukimura (Ultimate Paramedic)

Madoka Ronshaku (Ultimate Biochemist)

Naomi Ozawa (Ultimate Hypnotherapist)

Arisu Kataoka (Ultimate Actress)

Etsuya Ikeda (Ultimate Mathematician)

Ririko Ishikawa (Ultimate Violinist)

Aoki Ishikawa (Ultimate Singer)

Junji Kimoto (Ultimate Cartographer(Discoverer)

Mokichi Ikehata (Ultimate ???)

Now that you have the character list, onto chapter 1!   
(also, thank you to those who want to give this story a chance and that read through the beast of a prologue. I promise, the other chapters aren't that long.)


	3. Chapter 1: Daily life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1 is here! Yay! I hope you all enjoy this. Fun fact actually: I ended up rewriting part 1 in it's entirety from when I first wrote it. It became a lot longer and more in depth. And I like this version so much more from what I originally made. So enjoy this, y'all!   
> (and feel despair because you can't read chapter two until next week!)

Junji and I walked through the halls of the temple. We had been searching for an hour without much revealed. We had revisited the kitchen (for me) and learned from Monokuma that the kitchen would never run out of food. It would always be restocked based on how much food we ate the day prior. 

Junji was skeptical, but I figured that Monokuma had no reason to kill us himself. He would only kill us if we broke the rules. I told him as much and he reluctantly agreed. But that was all we found. No matter how hard we searched we came up with nothing. 

I just had to hope that the other groups would be more useful and find something. Even though I didn’t know them, I had to trust that they would actually work and try to find something. Rylan I doubted would work, but Naomi was with her and he seemed like a person who’d do something. 

I was with Junji. Rylan was with Naomi. Aoki was with Ririko, unsurprisingly. Renzo, also unsurprisingly, was with Madoka. Fujioka had dragged Mokichi out of the pool and forced the two of them to investigate together. Jotaro and Hitomi were together. Etsuya was with Ryu and Arisu was with Mami. 

We had spent the next hour with nothing new still. We tried and tried and tried and failed to find something new. Junji cursed at our lack of finding anything new and we headed back to the dining hall. We had all agreed to meet each other there after the two hours were over. And now those hours were over. 

Junji and I headed back towards the dining hall. We weren’t far from the dining hall, so we arrived quickly. And we were the first people there. 

Junji and I sat down, waiting for everyone else to arrive. 

“Well?” Junji asked. “What is the opinion of the  **Ultimate Historian** ?” 

“My opinion?” I repeated. “What do you mean?” 

“What do you think about this place? Any type of temple style you recognize? Or, ah, does this temple use a specific era for its design?” 

“Oh, um, not one that I recognize. To be honest with you, this temple seems like an amalgamation of a bunch of different temples and their styles. Mayan, Egyptian, Aztec, Roman, you name it. Monokuma said that this place was designed to fit the sixteen of us. This makes me wonder if this place was not only designed for our needs, but also for us and our talents. The temple for me, the long, interrupted halls for Fujioka, the music room for Aoki and Ririko, and whatever else is here. 

“I feel as though as this twisted game continues, more and more sections of this temple will be opened up for us.” 

“What makes you think that?” he asked. 

“Honestly? I have no clue. Just a gut feeling.” 

“A reward for surviving,” he glowered. “God, I can’t believe this is happening.” 

“Well, it is,” Hitomi responded, her voice snappy. “Get over it. And besides, what the hell were you two talking about? Just heard that last thing about bemoaning over our unfortunate circumstances.” 

I explained to her and Jotaro what I was thinking as they sat down. Hitomi nodded, thoughtful. “I guess it makes sense. Another reward that’s more than just surviving.” 

“And it’d make crimes harder to solve,” Jotaro added, his visible eye angled away. “There’d be more areas to investigate and to commit crimes.” 

“And solving crimes would become harder and harder,” Junji finished as Mokichi and Fujioka entered. 

“What would?” Mokichi asked, sitting down. 

We rehearsed what we just discussed and Madoka and Renzo had entered halfway through. Before long, everyone had arrived. 

“Now, time to discuss what we have discovered,” Hitomi began. “Who’s going first?” 

“We will,” I volunteered. 

“I was afraid you’d make us go first,” Junji groaned, hanging his head. I fought the smirk and pushed my chuckle down. 

“The kitchen,” I started, waving my hand behind me to the door where the kitchen was located, “is restocked daily according to how much we ate or drank the day before.” 

“So we don’t have to worry about starving to death,” Mokichi noted. “Or dehydration.” 

“They’re making us live comfortably and yet expect us to kill each other?” Rylan scoffed. “I can’t fucking believe this.” 

“Well, believe it,” Hitomi responded. It was a response that happened so fast that I’m not even sure she had given a second, or even a  _ first _ , thought to what she was saying. I blinked, surprised by the quickness of the response. 

“Besides that, we didn’t find anything,” Junji added. 

“How did you find out it was restocked daily?” Renzo inquired. 

“Hm? Oh, um, Monokuma told us,” I explained tentatively. 

“So, he paid you a visit, too, huh.” There was no question in Renzo’s voice, simply an observation. 

“He probably visited all of us,” Mokichi said. “He visited Fujioka and I, too.” 

Everyone nodded. He did indeed visit all of us, then.  _ Brilliant.  _

“And what did you two find out about our fancy prison?” Hitomi asked, staring at Renzo and Madoka. She looked bored though. Not emotionless like Arisu and Ririko, just bored as though she couldn’t be bothered with any of this. As though she already knew what was happening. 

I pushed that thought to the back of my mind as I listened to Renzo explain. “Not much. A science lab. There isn’t a lot there, though. Madoka is probably better suited to explain this.” 

“O-Oh, u-um, th-there were a-a lot of diff-different chemicals i-in, uh, th-the l-lab. N-Not e-enough t-to do a l-lot with, ah, b-but enough t-to c-create s-several different t-types of, u-um, p-poison.” She was stammering so bad it was honestly hard to make out what she was saying at times. That mixed with the fact that she spoke so quietly made it next to impossible to hear her. 

“Speak up and stop stammering so fuckin’ badly!” Rylan snapped. 

“Shut up,” Renzo snarled, glaring at her. 

She returned the glare, raising a brow while doing so. “And what are you going to do? Kill me? Start the Killing Game.” 

“The rules state that three people have to see the body of a dead classmate for the investigation to begin,” Hitomi pointed out, slowly shifting her eyes to Rylan. “If no one found your body then the game wouldn’t begin.” 

“You wouldn’t dare,” Rylan snarled. 

“Wouldn’t I?” Hitomi responded, her voice calm and relaxed. Yet the treat was clearly there, lurking underneath the words. A silent promise. 

“Can we stop threatening each other for a second and get back to learning more about this place?” Aoki suggested, her eyes darting between Hitomi, Rylan, and Renzo. 

“Of course,” Arisu agreed. “That’d be preferable. Continue, Madoka.” 

She barely nodded. “W-Well, ah, th-there were a-also b-books on h-how to c-create p-poisons. Erm, I-I u-used the ch-chemicals t-to, ah, c-create an a-acid and i-incinerated a-all of th-those books.” 

“I guess the rules didn’t say anything about destroying the property here in the temple,” Naomi mused. 

“Monokuma will probably just restock them,” Mokichi pointed out. “Trying to destroy books on poisons is probably going to futile. He’ll just have them restocked in a few days, probably.” 

“Not meaning to get off topic,” Ryu cut in, “but aren’t you a biochemist, Madoka?” 

She nodded. “I-I-I a-am, yes. B-But I-I am, um, a-also r-really g-good with, uh, ch-chemicals, t-too. M-My t-talent as the, um,  **U-Ultimate Biochemist** d-doesn’t j-just confine m-me to, u-um, b-biochemistry.” 

“Hm,” Mokichi noted. “Fascinating. But, back to earlier, it is still pointless to destroy the nonsense that Monokuma gives us to help us commit a murder. He’ll just restock them and make sure that we can’t do anything about it. He might add it to the rules, because, if you remember, he can add new rules whenever he sees fit. So, yeah, it’s pointless to destroy the books designed to help us learn how to create a poison.” 

“Then what do you suggest we do with them?” Renzo demanded. 

“Hide them, I’d say. Hide them where no one can find them.” 

“And what did you do with the acid?” Hitomi asked. 

“I-I, um, c-created another s-substance that m-made the a-acid, a-ah, quickly t-turn into n-nothingness.” 

“Care to elaborate?” 

“I-I’d take a-a while t-to explain i-it all,” she said. “B-But th-the acid was, u-um, destroyed.” 

“Could you make more of it?” Ririko asked. 

“Wh-Why?” she stammered. 

“Aoki and I found an iron door,” she explained. “According to Monokuma, it’s the exit.” 

“He told you it was the exit?” Fujioka blinked, surprised. 

“He did, indeed,” Aoki nodded. 

“And that’s why I’m curious if you could create more of that acid to melt through the iron door,” Ririko said. “I wonder if we could melt it away and we can escape.” 

“O-Oh,” Madoka whimpered, angling her head even further away. 

“What?” Mami asked. “Mami is curious! What is it, Madoka?” 

“There isn’t enough left to create more of this acid, is there?” Hitomi guessed. 

She nodded. “Th-There i-is, um, a l-little left, b-but, um, n-not enough t-to create e-enough a-acid to melt, ah, th-through a-an iron d-door.” 

“What about another acid?” Fujioka asked. “A different one.” 

She shook her head. “N-Not enough m-materials t-to create a d-d-different one th-that’s acidic e-enough to, u-um, melt th-through an i-iron door.” 

“So we’re still stranded,” Rylan groaned. “Good going, you little-” 

“Enough, Rylan,” snapped Junji. “Just shut up.” 

“And why do I have to take orders from you?” she hissed. 

“You're a nuisance,” Hitomi replied, her temper quite clearly shortening. “I don’t give a flying fuck if you’ve had a sad life or anything like that, you’re being a bitch to people who don’t deserve it.” 

“Think awfully high of yourself, don’t you?” 

“No, not in the slightest. I have it coming. Madoka, though, does not. As far as I’m aware, no one else in this room other than me deserve your insults. I’m not saying your insults are good, but I’m the only one who deserves them.” 

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Etsuya hummed. 

“Okay, maybe he does, too,” she sighed. “But other than the prick and I, they don’t deserve that.” 

“And you’re going to be their protector?” she scoffed. 

“If I must be, then yes.” 

“Can you two shut up?” I demanded. “Madoka, Renzo, you said that Monokuma also visited you. When? You haven’t revealed that.” 

“It’s because we also found something else,” Renzo said. “An exercising room.” Fujioka suddenly became even more alert. 

“What was in it?” he asked. 

“About what you’d expect. It’s as large as a gym, but that’s all there is to it. It’s close to the pool, but there’s no sign for it. Similarly, there are changing rooms and a supply closet with a bunch of different exercising things.” 

“And Monokuma visited you in there?” Naomi asked. 

Renzo nodded. “It was sick advice. If you’re a boy, kill a girl in the girl’s locker room. Everyone will suspect that it will have to be a girl. And vice versa.” 

“Of course  _ he’d _ suggest that,” Fujioka glowered. 

“That’s besides the point,” Hitomi said, pushing it to the side. “Ririko and Aoki, how about you?” I caught a flicker of something that looked like pain flash across Hitomi’s face. I stared only for a second before paying attention to the conversation again after I deemed that I wouldn’t learn anything from Hitomi’s expression. 

“Hm?” Aoki cocked her head. “What do you mean?” 

“What did Monokuma visit you to tell you about?” 

“About what you’d expect,” Ririko sighed. “The usual drabble about how we could kill someone near the door and blame it on him and that they were close to finding a way to escape and so he killed them.” 

“There’s a few flaws with that logic,” Hitomi mused, “but I guess it’d work if you weren’t thinking about it. Still useless information though.” 

“He’s very determined though,” Arisu noted. “It’s going to make him unpredictable.” 

“And even more dangerous than we thought,” Naomi added. “With the determination to get the Killing Game going, his persistence will start to weigh on one or more of our minds. It’ll create pressure and someone will snap if he continues like this.” 

“So how likely is a murder?” Jotaro asked, clearly alarmed. 

“Uh...it depends. None of us want this, so we have that, but he’ll act eventually.” 

“You mean motives?” I checked. 

He nodded. “Yeah. He’ll create motives close to our hearts to make us snap and become a blackened.” 

“His determination for a Killing Game is frightening,” Mokichi mused. 

“So what do we do to not let that happen?” Junji pondered. 

“Create a trust between all of us?” Mami suggested. “Mami thinks that we’d all make great friends!” 

“Friends?” Etsuya repeated. “Seriously? How naive are you?” 

“Have a problem with idealism, Etsuya?” Ryu asked. I couldn’t tell if he was actually trying to defend Mami, trying to seduce her by standing up for her, or if he just didn’t like what Etsuya had said. Or Etsuya himself. 

“Etsuya does indeed have a problem with idealism,” he mocked, grinning like a snake at Mami. Anger boiled deep within me. “You see, my problem comes from that fact that allying with each other is just stupid. We can’t trust each other. Not in a situation like this.” 

“A situation like this is the reason we need to trust each other,” Fujioka protested. “Something horrible will happen and Monokuma will win! The Killing Game will exist and despair would be everywhere.” 

“On the contrary,” Etsuya refuted. “You see, if we don’t trust each other, then Monokuma won’t win. Yes, the Killing Game will exist, but Monokuma’s goal isn’t the Killing Game itself, but our despair. And if we don’t trust each other then we won’t have any despair as we slaughter each other.” 

“Wh-What the hell?” Rylan stammered. 

Hitomi sighed, or maybe it was a groan, but she said, “In a twisted way, your logic makes sense. My problem though, is that I don’t intend to let any of us die. Despair may be Monokuma’s end goal, but it’s not the only thing he’s trying to get to happen. My gut feeling tells me that there is more to this than just despair and the Killing Game.” 

“And what would that be, exactly?” Etsuya demanded, frowning as he leaned back in his chair. 

“Not a clue,” she shrugged. “Does it matter though?” 

“Of course it matters!” 

“Well, I’m not sure. As I said, it’s just a gut feeling. It might be wrong, yes, but I feel as though there is another reason behind this than just our despair.” 

I glanced down at the table, thinking. _ Another reason than just our despair, huh? What could that mean? Is there another goal for us here?  _ To figure out those thoughts, I would need more information. Information that I would have to learn at a later date as the conversation continued. 

“Moving on,” Arisu cut in, “Mami and I didn’t find a lot. But I guess it's the same with all of you.” 

“What did you find though?” Etsuya sighed. “I suppose all these dumbasses want to know, so explain away.” 

“Mami and Arisu found a room with loads of technology!” Mami cheered. 

“We found a computer lab,” Arisu translated. “They turned on. Monokuma created his own search engine. The only things that you can search up are the best ways to dispose of a body, poisons, the best way to kill a person and get away with the crime. Those kinds of things.” 

“Well, that’s ridiculously macabre!” I exclaimed. 

“Yes, it is,” Arisu agreed. 

“Oh, dear lord,” Etsuya groaned. 

“Do you have a problem, Etsuya?” Arisu asked. She didn’t sound confrontational at all. Then again, she didn’t sound curious either. Still just dead. 

“Are you made of cardboard?” he asked. “You have zero emotion.” 

“It’s what makes me a good actress,” she explained. “I can slip into someone else’s personality without having one of my own getting in the way.” 

“Then you could at least do us the courtesy of creating a persona for you to use while here with us.” 

“Like you do?” she backfired. 

Etsuya blinked, confusion and surprise dancing in his eyes. “How did...What are you playing at?” he snarled. 

“Nothing. I don’t care who you are, but I’m just letting you know that an actor can tell apart the facade and the reality. I don’t have to know who you really are to know that you’ve lied. Not that you’re the only one here who has done this, though.” 

We were all staring at her, surprised. She had told something similar to Junji and I, but didn’t explain it this much. 

Etsuya was...lying? About what? His name? His talent? Both?  _ How _ much was he lying to us about? Was he even lying at all? Was Arisu wrong? 

“What are you talking about?” Hitomi demanded. 

“You know what I’m talking about.” 

No one said anything for a good long while. Eventually, Jotaro, of all people, broke the silence. “W-Well, moving on, Hitomi and I found what I believe to be a nurse’s office. Monokuma said it’s where I would have to take care of you all if any of you got injured. Or use the tools in there to torture and kill you.” 

“What the hell is that cursed bear’s problem!?” Renzo cursed. “How much planning went into this place?” 

“Years, if I had to guess,” Hitomi sighed, turning away from Arisu. “But there were medical supplies in that room. It had a key which Monokuma also gave us.” 

“I have the key,” Jotaro said, brandishing the key. 

“I-I c-can, um, help y-you when y-you need i-it,” Madoka offered. “I kn-know a f-few th-things that, u-um, may h-help you.” 

“And I can teach you a few things as well,” he replied happily. 

“Kinky,” Rylan commented blandly. 

Madoka turned bright red as she turned away and Jotaro, while it was hard to tell through the wrappings, also blushed and angled his eye away. “Th-That’s what I meant.” 

“Sure,” she purred. 

I had to actually force down a choked laugh while I cut in. “Y-You didn’t have to add that, Rylan.” 

“Well, then the emo can elaborate.” 

“I-I thought it was obvious,” Jotaro defended weakly. His voice was quieting. 

“I-I kn-know what, um, y-you meant,” Madoka stammered. 

“Oh, brilliant,” Ryu groaned. “Both of the people who know how to heal us are cowards. Well, I guess it's hot on both of them, annoyingly.” 

I bit my tongue, choking. Hitomi just simply choked. “Has anyone ever taught you to not speak?” she asked. 

“Sorry, can’t say they have,” Ryu shrugged. 

“They should’ve,” Renzo commented. 

“And I should’ve figured you’d say that,” Ryu said. 

“If you don’t want me to say anything about it, then tell us what you found.” 

“Would you like to do the honors, Etsuya?” Ryu asked, laying back in his chair as he slung his arm over the back of it. 

“Can’t say that I do. Speak away, pervert.” 

“Right. Ugh, fine. Okay, so Etsuya and I investigated the pool.” 

“I’m sorry?” I blinked. 

“You heard me. We investigated the pool.” 

“For the entire two hours?” Aoki gaped. 

“Yeah. So? We were trying to be thorough.” 

“That is definitely a double entendre,” Junji said. 

“Oh, most assuredly,” I agreed. 

“Despite your low opinions of me,” Ryu hissed, “Etsuya and I did try to find any secrets in the pool.” 

“And did you find any?” Hitomi asked. “I can forgive your laziness if you actu-” 

“We didn’t find a damn thing,” Etsuya cut in. 

Hitomi stayed silent, blinking at both Etsuya and Ryu. 

“Did Monokuma at least tell you anything?” Ririko asked. 

“He didn’t even show up,” Etsuya replied. 

“I thought you said he did,” I reminded him. 

“I remember. Ryu didn’t say we ran into him, but I did. I didn’t want to feel left out. Conformity, ya know?” 

“You wouldn’t be the person to fall to conformity,” Naomi countered. “You just wanted to mess with us, didn’t you?” 

“Was it that obvious?” he pouted. 

“It was.” 

“Dammit. Ryu, you should have gotten us out of the pool and looking around in other areas.” 

“Don’t thrust that problem on me.” 

“What the hell is wrong with him?” I wondered under my breath. I had caught Ryu’s horny pun. 

“Not a clue,” Junji responded with equal quiet. And he was equally unimpressed. 

“You two are worthless,” Rylan snapped. “Do something worthwhile like the midget and I did.” 

“And what did you two do?” Etsuya asked. 

“We found an elevator,” Naomi explained. “According to Monokuma, that elevator leads to the trial grounds. At the end of the investigation, we meet up there and wait for the doors to open. When they do, we climb aboard and it takes us down to the trial.” 

“And that’s important how?” Ryu asked. 

“Because we now have a better understanding of how much effort was put into this place,” Hitomi explained. “With an elevator leading down to the trial grounds and a doorway that opened by someone’s command tells me that someone is watching us and controlling the electricity of this place. With what Rin and Junji discovered, we know that there has to at least be a team behind all this. One person couldn’t put all this together.” 

“Yeah!” Etsuya falsely cheered. “A despair cult kidnapped us.” 

Ririko frowned at him. “A despair cult?” she repeated. She sounded annoyed. Not that I could blame her. 

“Yeah. This is a Killing Game for despair, right? And a group put all this together, right? So it’d be a cult for despair, right?” 

“Can you stop saying  _ ‘right’ _ ?” Aoki snapped. 

Ririko sighed. “It’s fine, Aoki. But yeah, I suppose it’d be a cult if you put it like that.” 

“That’s the only way to put it,” he said. 

“That doesn’t matter,” Hitomi cut in. “We have no way out still, and that’s a problem. If what Naomi said is true, the faster we get out of this place, the better.” 

Naomi nodded in agreement. 

And then the monitor that was hanging in the corner of the dining hall flickered on. Monokuma sat there, a wine glass in his grimy little paws. “It is now 10:00 PM,” he announced. “That means it is bedtime. This is the nighttime announcement. So go to your rooms and get to sleep. I’ll wake you tomorrow morning for the morning announcement.” 

And the screen flashed off. 

“Great,” Hitomi glowered. “Nighttime.” 

“So, what do we do?” I asked. 

She cocked her head. “I thought that was quite clearly explained by that damn bear.” 

“No, I mean what do we do tomorrow when that morning announcement plays? Do we all meet here for a roll call type thing?” 

Hitomi nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. Keep an eye on everybody for breakfast. We’ll get a chance to know each other, too.” 

“And what about tonight?” Aoki asked. 

“Our nerves are going to be haywire,” Naomi said. “We’re going to be jumpy and skeptical of everything.” 

“There’s not much we can do about that,” Mokichi sighed. “We could all agree that none of us leave our rooms at night, but it would have to self imposed. And I doubt some of us would agree to that.” His eyes grazed over Ryu, Etsuya, and Rylan. 

“Do you not trust us?” Rylan snapped. 

“No, not in the slightest,” he responded quickly. 

“Anywho, we should all head to our rooms,” Hitomi yawned. “We can at least make ourselves comfortable while we are forced to stay here.” 

“I don’t intend to stay here long enough to get comfortable,” I snapped. 

“Still. At least use the room assigned to you. There is no point in defying Monokuma and making yourself sleep deprived isn’t going to help anyone. Not to mention, the rules state that you can’t sleep anywhere else other than one of the dorm-room-area-things.” 

“Dorm-room-area-things?” I repeated. 

“You know what I mean. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired as hell.” Without saying goodbye in any fashion, Hitomi stood up and left us, heading to her room. 

“Guess we should get some sleep,” Fujioka agreed. “We need healthy bodies so that we can fight against Monokuma.” 

“I think that you’re the only one who’s super concerned about a healthy body here,” Mokichi said, but smirked slightly. 

And without any more words, we all shuffled out of our rooms and back to our rooms. I entered mine and stared around, taking in more of it than before. Now that I wasn’t so confused and panicked. 

The bed was located in the middle of the room, having its backboard pressed up against the wall. Twin katanas were displayed above my bed. They were held down tightly enough so that they wouldn’t fall on my head in the middle of the night and kill me then and there. There were also shelves with different types of books on it. They weren’t related to the Killing Game though. No, they were instead related to my talent with history. There was another, smaller room. It was a bathroom. Shower and all. 

And that was all. Having thoroughly inspected the room, I turned to the bed and headed straight towards it. I fell on top of it and didn’t bother to pull the blankets around me as I passed into sleep. The numbness that had been growing in my head all day had finally taken me into a dark, cold embrace. 

And I welcomed it. 

Just as this Killing Game welcomed me. 


	4. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so stupid, I forgot yesterday was Saturday. So here is chapter 2 a day late. I'll probably post chapter 3 tomorrow because I forgot yesterday. Anyways, enjoy today's (was supposed to be yesterday's) chapter.

“This is an official announcement from the  **Ultimate Temple for the Gifted Generation** : it is now 8:00 AM. That means it’s morning time, my blooming killers. Get up for today and kill kill kill!” Monokuma laughed and the monitor in my room switched off. It really wasn’t a dream as I had hoped. 

And that thought made me sit up and stare blankly at the wall in front of me. The numbness that had been gnawing at me all day yesterday was still there, clawing its way through my mental fortitude. Years of learning so much about the depths of horror humanity had done to itself had given me an iron stomach. It wasn’t just from seeing skeletons, corpses, and tortures, but from learning about humanity’s sins. 

But never in my wildest dreams had I thought that I’d be going through something so wicked. Something so removed from reality that it felt as though it all should have just been one big nightmare caused by me working too hard. 

But this was real. This wasn’t some dream or figment of my imagination. This really was a Killing Game. A game of life and death. That’s what this was. And that’s what it would continue to be. Until two of us remained. 

I suddenly blinked, remembering that I’d promised to meet the others in the dining hall. I breathed through my nose and put my walls of hope back up as I launched from my bed. I could make it through this. I knew it in my bones. And that determination and hope is what encouraged me to keep walking forwards as I hurried to the dining hall. 

“Well, you seem awfully chipper this morning,” Hitomi observed. Only she, Junji, Mokichi, Madoka, Jotaro, Ririko, and Arisu were there. 

“Eh, good night’s sleep,” I shrugged, taking my seat from yesterday next to Junji. Junji had his E-handbook out and was reading through it. 

“Then you’d be the only one,” Mokichi said, breathing slowly. “We’ve all started to freak out about what we’re going to do.” 

“Isn’t that what we were going to discuss today?” I asked. 

“We just need to wait for all the others,” Jotaro replied. 

“What the-” Junji’s head shot up and he stared at Hitomi. She met his gaze and cocked her head. 

“Problem?” 

“O-Oh. Um, n-no. No problem. Sorry.” 

“Well, that sounds suspicious,” Mokichi commented. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Junji defended. 

“Hm? Nothing. Just sounded odd, that’s all.” 

“It really was noth-” 

“It’s fine, Junji,” I interrupted. 

“Right. Yeah.” And Junji turned his gaze back to his E-handbook, confusion written on it. 

“Are you okay?” I asked quietly. 

“Wha-? Oh, yeah. I’m fine, Rin. Don’t worry about it.” 

I eyed him, but ignored it. 

My mind went back to the mystery of this temple and I hummed in thought as Mami, Renzo, and Naomi entered. 

“Mami had a brilliant thought last night!” Mami cried as she took her seat. 

“And that thought is?” Hitomi asked, sounding bored. 

“Mami thinks we should fight against Monokuma!” 

Hitomi made a gesture to continue. Mami didn’t. “Is that all?” she blinked. “Did I miss the brilliant part of that plan?” 

I stifled a laugh as Mami explained. “Mami thought that we all could gang up on Monokuma and end him then and there. Mami thinks that she found a way to end this Killing Game.” 

“That idea doesn’t sound horrible,” Naomi agreed. 

“It’d end the Killing Game before it can even begin,” Arisu put in. 

Mami beamed at both of them as Hitomi countered with, “He’d just kill you for trying to bring harm to him. We don’t know how he would kill us, but if the prepwork that went into building this place is any indication of how much thought went into killing us should we decide to break the rules then you  _ will _ die. I can’t stop you, but I can advise you against such an idiotic idea.” 

“You only say it’s idiotic because you don’t agree with it,” Etsuya said as he walked in. 

“How long have you been lurking out there in the hall?” Mokichi asked. 

Hitomi replied for him, “He was just behind Mami, Renzo, and Naomi. He’s been standing out there and listening.” 

Etsuya frowned. “Do you have to take all the fun out of this?” 

“Where is the ‘ _ fun _ ’ in a Killing Game?” 

“It’s not about the Killing Game, but the lurking. I wanted you all to be incredibly confused as I waltzed in and knew what you were talking about.” 

Hitomi cocked her head. I could almost see the gears in her head whirling as she thought over those words. 

Etsuya sat down and Fujioka, Rylan, Ryu, and Aoki entered the dining hall. 

“That’s everyone,” Mokichi said, straightening his back. “So, now we make a plan, yes?” 

“Mami has one!” Mami said. She recited her plan to the people who just arrived. 

“I was thinking the same thing!” Fujioka said once she finished. “The only way we’re going to make it out of here is if we fight back.” 

“And all die in the process,” Hitomi groaned. “What a great plan, truly.” 

“But we have to take that chance, right?” Aoki said. “We have to do something or nothing. And I don’t see you offering any ideas.” 

“That’s because I’m trying to think of a plan that won’t result in any of our deaths.” 

“And what expert opinion does a librarian have on a matter like this!?” Rylan demanded. 

“More than an heiress does, that’s for sure,” Hitomi backfired. “Besides, I have read plenty of books with convoluted plans that work out and it’s not hard to see why they worked out.” 

“Those are books, not reality,” Etsuya responded. 

“You call this situation reality?” Hitomi hummed. “A situation like this is so removed from the reality that we know that it’s hard to count this as reality. Monokuma is proof enough. That vanishing thing he does, how is that normal? How often do you see walking, talking, sadistic teddy bears high on despair disappear in front of you?” 

“Never,” I answered. 

She waved a hand in my direction. “Exactly.” 

“We still have to find a way out though, right?” Renzo asked. “We can’t just sit here and wait to die.” 

“Exactly,” Hitomi agreed. 

“Junji,” Arisu’s voice cut in, “are you okay?” 

“You look like you’re half dead,” Ryu said. 

“Yes, I saw the mirror this morning,” Junji replied. I stared at him. He did look tired. No, exhausted. Like he was up all night and working his ass off. 

“Are you really okay?” I whispered. 

“I’m fine, Rin. Just meet me in my room after this meeting is over.” 

I nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see you there.” 

“Anywho,” Mokichi said, diverging the conversation back to before we got off on a very large tangent, “it’s asinine and suicidal to fight Monokuma. If you want to go against him, that’s on you. But at least try to help the rest of find a safer way out of here.” 

“That bitch Madoka destroyed our way out yesterday!” Rylan snapped, glaring at Madoka. 

“S-S-Sorry,” Madoka apologized. 

“There is no need for you to apologize, Madoka,” I told her. 

“Yeah, Rin’s right,” Renzo agreed. “Rylan, if anyone, is the one who needs to apologize.” 

“And why do  _ I _ need to apologize?” 

“Because you’re an ungrateful bitch who bullies everyone here,” Hitomi sniped. “Now shut up. Or I’ll make you shut up.” More darkly, she added, “Permanently.” 

Rylan, unsurprisingly, backed down. She even cowered away from Hitomi a bit. Not that I could blame her. The death stare she gave was one that burnt through your soul. 

“One thing I’d like to know,” I said, breaking another silence, “is which of us agree with Mami’s plan of fighting against Monokuma.” To my surprise, just a little less than half of us raised our hand. Those who raised their hands were: Mami, Arisu, Fujioka, Aoki, Rylan, Naomi, and Etsuya. Then, slowly, Ririko raised her hand. “You’re with them, too, huh?” I asked. 

“No, but I’ll fight with Aoki,” Ririko responded. “She’s my sister, I’m not going to let her fight that thing alone.” I nodded. I couldn't be repulsed by that. She wanted to protect her sister. There was nothing wrong with that. Although, strangely, I caught a very brief flicker of surprise on Aoki’s face. 

“And those of who don’t agree with this course of action?” Mokichi called. He, Hitomi, Madoka, Renzo, Ryu, Junji, Jotaro, Mokichi, and me all raised our hands while the others lowered their’s. 

“So it seems we’re split right down the middle on what to do,” Renzo noted. “That’s just wonderful.” 

“So how do we now decide on what to do?” Jotaro asked. 

“There isn’t much we can do, I don’t think,” Hitomi sighed. 

“Being split will divide our ideas,” Naomi said. “Without a common plan, we’re not going to get far.” 

“So what do we do then?” Aoki inquired. 

“We merely have to think of something that we can all agree on,” I told her. “And I don’t think we’ll think of anything just sitting here for the rest of the day.” 

Mokichi nodded in agreement. “Absolutely.” 

“Then I guess our breakfast is over,” Etsuya said as he got up and left. 

“I guess it is,” Hitomi agreed. 

Rylan, Naomi, Fujioka, Mami, Ryu, and Junji quickly left. Junji gave me a glance which which I had returned. I hadn’t forgotten. 

“Rin, can I talk to you for a moment?” Hitomi asked. 

“Yeah, sure.” 

She quickly grabbed my arm and dragged me to the corner where she started to rapidly whisper to me. “You’re going to be in danger. You have an extraordinary talent. While most of us pass off your talent, the people behind this will not pass it off. You have solved some of the world’s greatest historical mysteries. That mind for detective solving will put you in danger from our captors. They might lash out if you start to get too close to something. Be careful.” 

With that, Hitomi sauntered off. And I stood there, shaken. 

“Rin, are you alright?” Mokichi asked. 

I barely nodded as I left the dining hall. Out in the hall, I came to a stop to let myself breath. 

_ What in the hell did Hitomi mean? _ I wondered. I knew it was a warning, but she advised me against doing what we all were trying to do? I didn’t understand. She was even more of a mystery than Mokichi. 

I breathed deeper and attempted pushed those thoughts from my brain. I failed. 

But I still pushed myself off the wall and headed for Junji’s room. 

His name was displayed on a nameplate hanging on a door. Figuring that was his room, I knocked on it and waited only for a few seconds before the door was flung open and I was dragged inside by Junji. 

I stumbled as he let me go. Whirling to him, I, rather lividly, demanded, “What the hell is going on?” 

“Sorry,” Junji cringed, “but I needed to get you in here quick.” 

“And why is that?” I snapped, crossing my arms. 

“Because I found something last night. And what I found made me sure that the only person I could is you.” 

I raised my brows. “And that is?” 

“Follow me. We need to be quick and not be seen.” 

Junji led us out of the hallway and down to in front of the iron exit door. “What are we even looking for?” I asked, watching Junji. He didn’t respond and just stopped in the middle of the entryway. The iron door itself was in an alcove. The area around it was large and boxy like the rest of this place. 

I watched as Junji knelt down and lifted off a piece of wood painted to look like the floor. A handle had now been revealed. Junji glanced from side to side before grabbing the handle and lifting it up. I stepped up behind him and peeked down the hole. There was a ladder, but I had no idea how far down it went. The bottom was pitch black. 

“What’s down there?” I asked, glancing at Junji. 

“Go down and see.” 

“Can’t you go first?” 

“Why? Scared?” 

“Of course I am! Any person in their right mind would be scared of  _ that _ !” 

“Guess I’m not in my right mind then.” 

Junji didn’t hesitate as he climbed onto the ladder and went down. “Be sure to close the hatch,” he called up. “We don’t want anyone following us.” 

I didn’t respond, but Junji already knew my answer.  _ Of course. _ I waited for the lights to flash on before I started down the ladder, grabbing the edge and closing the trapdoor on my way down. 

I reached the bottom rung and turned around, facing the room. It looked like a long forgotten room with all the dust that had been gathered. Scrolls, books, maps, and all kinds of other ancient objects littered the musty room. 

“What is this place?” I asked in awe. 

“I’m not sure,” Junji responded. “But I figured you might want to see this. Especially after I found this.” 

He grabbed one of the books and pushed it towards me. I laid it out flat on the table and started to read it…

_ Huh? _

It’s almost time. I have grown to like my comrades, but the Killing Game must happen. I’m going to keep this note short so it doesn’t take up too much time. Although, some of the people here have started to get a little too nosy. Especially Junji Kimoto. He might be an...issue. 

But that’s neither here nor there. All I have to do now is get her to tell me how to reset their memories. 

The  **Ultimate Despair** is signing out

I blinked, baffled by the note in front of me. It seemed as though someone had been keeping a diary as they planning out this Killing Game. As if one of  _ us _ planned out this Killing Game. 

“What the hell is this?” I gasped. 

“I’m not sure,” he huffed. “But it sounds as though someone in our group is Monokuma’s puppetmaster. It sounds as though one of us is-” 

“The mastermind,” I breathed. 

Junji didn’t do anything for a moment, but he then nodded. “Yes.” 

“Then we need to find out who they are, don’t we?” 

I whipped around and Junji’s head shot up. Arisu Kataoka was standing at the ladder, her arms slack at her side. But she was staring straight ahead at us. “I was wondering what you two were doing,” she said as she ran her finger through some dust. 


	5. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said, here is the next chapter as a treat for me forgetting about Saturday. Hope you enjoy it!

“A-Arisu!” I gasped. “What are you doing here?” 

“I could ask you the same question,” she replied. “I saw you and Junji snooping around and watched the two of you head down here. You two were so focused on that note that you didn’t even notice when the trapdoor was opened and I started climbing down here.” 

“What are you doing, Arisu?” I asked, fighting the urge to snap at her. 

“I want to help you two,” she said. “A pact. Between the three of us. To solve the mystery behind this place and help everyone escape. Do you concur?” 

Neither of us spoke for a solid minute before Junji stepped up and nodded. “Yes. Three sets of eyes are better than two, anyways.” 

I didn’t glance at Junji, but I wondered what he was playing at. He didn’t want to trust anybody but me, and now here he was trusting Arisu. Sure, she was our idol, but he still didn’t trust her enough to inform her of this discovery. Maybe he didn’t trust her, but was going to let her in to keep a better eye on her. After all, she had caught us in this place. He had to be trying to get on her to work with us so that she wouldn’t talk and inform the others of this place. 

I reminded myself to bring it up later as I nodded. “Absolutely. Here, read this.” I handed her the diary I had just read and waited until she finished. 

“Interesting,” Arisu hummed. “It sounds as though one of us is the mastermind.” 

“It’s what it sounds like,” I agreed as Arisu set the diary down. 

“I spent all of last night in this place,” Junji said. “I’ve been searching for something- _ anything _ -that would point to the bastard behind all of this.” 

“It’ll take a more thorough investigation of this room and temple to find sufficient clues,” Arisu advised. As she said that, my mind flashed back to the dining hall. 

_ She quickly grabbed my arm and dragged me to the corner where she started to rapidly whisper to me. “You’re going to be in danger. You have an extraordinary talent. While most of us pass off your talent, the people behind this will not pass it off. You have solved some of the world’s greatest historical mysteries. That mind for detective solving will put you in danger from our captors. They might lash out if you start to get too close to something. Be careful.”  _

Hitomi said they would try to come after me if I start gaining on them. So did  _ Hitomi _ know about this also? When would she have learned though? Junji was in this little hidden room all night. 

“Rin?” Junji cocked his head. “You okay?” 

“Hm? Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” I reassured. 

“You were thinking of something,” Arisu told me. 

“Ah, yes, I was. I think we need to be careful while we investigate. The mastermind might start the Killing Game by killing one of us and framing it on another. We can’t let them get onto us.” 

Arisu and Junji nodded in agreement. “We can’t let them stop us,” Junji nodded. 

“Anywho, how far did you get through this place last night?” I asked, turning to all the dusty papers. 

“Not far, honestly. I wasn’t reading all of this as much as I was just searching through it all and quickly glancing at the papers. There is a lot to this room.” 

“So was it this messy last night?” Arisu asked. “Or did you mess it up while searching?” 

“I-I messed it up while searching,” he responded shyly. “Sorry.” 

“It’s fine,” I reassured him. “I’ve searched through messier, more compact rooms.” 

“I’m aware.” 

I flashed him a grin over my shoulder as I walked over to the shelf on the far end of the room and started digging through the papers. I could hear Junji and Arisu doing the same on the walls on either side of me. 

My eyes landed on a paper with the insignia of  Raionhāto Academy. I pulled it out, ripped open the seal, and started to read the paper. The very, very baffling paper. 

Dear, Rin Akabane, 

The  **Ultimate Initiative** has chosen you as the  **Ultimate Historian** . An appropriate talent for your skills. And we have accepted you to Raionhāto Academy. Please send a letter to us if you accept to come to our illustrious school. We hope you do decide to come here and hone your  **Ultimate Talent** . 

Sincerely, 

The  **Ultimate Academy for the Brave and Courageous** , 

Raionhāto Academy

“Rin?” Junji’s voice cut into my blank mind. I hadn’t even realized I was just standing there, staring at the paper in front of me. I remember reading this note. I had set it on my nightstand just two days ago. It was in perfect shape, not in the worn, decrepit state it was in now. 

“H-Huh?” I turned to him. “Oh, sorry. This just caught me off guard.” 

“What did?” He strolled over to me and read the note. “Huh? What’s so odd about this? I got a similar one when Raionhāto Academy accepted me into their school. Of course, I was asking for Junji Kimoto, the  **Ultimate Cartographer** , not Rin Akabane, the  **Ultimate Historian** .” 

“It’d be odd if you got a letter from Raionhāto Academy about me, Junji,” I told him with a small smile. “But that’s not my problem. This paper looks withered. Not super withered like some papers I’ve looked at, but withered nonetheless. And the problem with that is I remember seeing this paper  _ not _ withered two days ago.” 

“It might be a copy,” Arisu suggested. “Or our memories have been erased and a substantial amount of time has passed.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Junji demanded. 

“I mean, we might not remember how long we’ve actually been here.” 

“How would we forget that?” I asked. 

She shrugged. “Naomi would be suspect. He’s the  **Ultimate Hypnotherapist** and amnesia is something he dabbles in. True, he may normally  _ reverse _ amnesia, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t know how to erase memories, or even change them.” 

“I think I prefer the copy theory,” I said, disgusted by the thought of someone altering my memories. 

“What you prefer is irrelevant,” Arisu countered. “We’d all prefer to not be here, yet here we are regardless. In the end, we have to just accept the truth and keep moving on. If we want to find a way out of here, anywho.” 

“I suppose,” I agreed. 

“Moving on, we’re not going to tell anyone else about this, right?” she checked. 

“Not a person,” Junji confirmed. “Keeping it between the three of us is the best way to find the mastermind and end this Killing Game before it can even begin.” 

Arisu nodded. “From what I’ve noticed,” she mused, “I haven’t seen a lot of papers, but most of them are pointless. Receipts, recipes, shopping lists, and the occasional note to someone I’ve never heard of.” 

“Who?” I asked. 

“Someone named Katzumi Fujisaki. Most all of these are to this Katzumi character. There are also some letters to one Tsukuda...Something. Her last name is hard to read, the writing is so sloppy. I’m not even sure I got that first name right.” 

“So how are they important to us?” Junji hummed. “What do  _ they _ have to do with this Killing Game?” 

“We’ll see,” Arisu hummed. “If they have anything to do with the Killing Game at all.” 

“If their names are down here, then surely they have something to do with it,” I reasoned. 

“We’d have to find more clues linking em to this place,” Junji said. “And we’d have to find out who they are.” 

“That second thing feels like it should be the first,” I pointed out. 

“Agreed,” Arisu nodded. 

“Have you found anything, Rin?” Junji asked, leaning against the table. 

“Other than this-” I motioned towards the acceptance letter “-no. Nothing here is of importance. Then again, I’ve only gone through the scroll things. There are still all these shelves, drawers, books, and whatnot. It’ll take ages to go through all this.” 

“We have plenty of time,” Junji reminded me. 

“Oh, I’m aware. But we also want to hurry so that Monokuma doesn’t mess with us and ruin our plans.” 

“Speaking of our plans,” Arisu said, “what  _ are _ the two of you planning? Surely you must have some idea of what to do once you find the mastermind.” 

“Ah, I-I haven’t thought that far ahead,” Junji admitted. “I was waiting to discuss with Rin. Or I guess the both of you, now.” 

“Revealing them won’t be enough,” Arisu pointed out. 

“And what would be?” I asked. 

“I’m not sure. I’m not suggesting doing anything drastic, but we have to think of something to stop the mastermind once we find them.” 

“Probably something to hold them captive until we can properly explain everything to everyone else,” I suggested. 

“What would we hold them captive with?” Arisu asked. “And where would we hold them?” 

“U-Uh...huh. Sorry.” 

“It’s fine, Rin.” Junji patted my shoulder as he turned to face the shelves on the other end of the room. “We should continue.” 

“Rin,” Arisu began, “when you go through rooms like this when investigating historical mysteries, how do you begin?” 

“Normally, if I have the time, I organize it all first. Make sure that it’s not all falling apart around me. Give myself room to work. I start the sorting from the sturdiest to the most fragile. Then I dissect it even more by separating it into type. Like notes-slash-letters, books, artifacts, etcetera. I go even further down the list by then separating them into dates, if they have one. If they don’t, then I put them at the bottom in their own section.” 

“How long do you think it will take for us to go through this room?” Junji inquired. 

I scanned the room. “Judging from the size of the room, we might be able to mostly get it done today if we stay up till midnight. We’d have to come back later tomorrow to finish the rest of it.” 

Junji nodded. “Then let’s start now.” 

Slowly, bit by bit, we started organizing the room. Arisu and Junji closely followed my instructions as I moved them around and showed them where to put what. I didn’t bother to read anything other than the occasional glance in to see what the date was. Arisu and Junji were taking the longer route, having never done this before, but I was doing all of the instructions at once. Having trained myself so thoroughly had made this process quicker when I’d done before. 

The nighttime announcement had rung, but there was no monitor down in the little, hidden room, so we barely heard it. Eventually, it was midnight. 

The three of us shuffled out of the room and up the ladder into the entryway. “So we pick this up tomorrow after breakfast?” Junji asked, checking. 

Arisu and I nodded. “Excellent. Remember, we can’t tell  _ anyone _ about this. Even if you come to trust them.” 

“I know, Junji,” I reassured him, setting a hand on his shoulder. “We both do. We’re not going to tell anyone.” 

“Right. Just reminding the two of you.” 

“We don’t need it,” Arisu informed him. “I can lie and no one would be the wiser.” 

That one sentence sent a shiver down my spine. Because she could. Arisu was the  **Ultimate Actress** , so she could lie and no one would know the difference. She could betray us and then feign that she wasn’t helping us. 

Without another word, Arisu turned and left. “I know we’ve both fawned over Arisu in the past,” I commented, “but meeting her in person is terrifying. And it’s not because she’s our idol. No, it’s because-” 

“She’s kind of freaky,” Junji finished. “With that deadness. And the truth in those last words.” 

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I don’t know what to make of it. Of her.” 

“Many people here are strange,” Junji said. 

I nodded in agreement. “Anyways, I suppose we should listen to ourselves and hurry on over to our rooms and get to bed. Because there is no way in hell that I’m going to let you go two nights in a row without sleep!” 

“You are seriously acting like my mother, you know,” Junji said. 

“And for good reason, too! She had the right idea, not letting you do as you please.” 

“Harsh.” 

“Twit.” 

“Brat.” 

I couldn’t fight the smile, even as I flipped him off again. A gesture he returned. We both chuckled on our way back to our rooms. I entered mine without another word as Junji continued for his room. 

I turned and laid down in the bed, running my mind over the facts that I had learned. Those, and Hitomi’s ominous warning. I couldn’t help but wonder if she knew about the secret room, too. And if she knew that Junji had found it, and that it was likely I would find it, too. Either through Junji or on my own. 

And soon enough, I dozed off into a dreamless sleep. 


	6. Chapter 4

The morning announcement went off, waking me. And while it did wake me, that does not mean I wanted to get up. But I remembered both my promises. The one about meeting everyone in the dining hall in the morning, and the one about meeting Junji and Arisu in the secret room under the entrance hall. 

With those promises in mind, I pushed myself out of the annoying comfortable bed and headed towards the dining hall. Renzo, Madoka, Ririko, Hitomi, Junji, Arisu, Jotaro, Mokichi, and Fujioka were all already there. 

“How the hell do you people get up and over here so quickly?” I groaned as I threw myself into a chair. 

“You look dead,” Hitomi noted bluntly. 

“Thanks for that.” 

“ _ Why _ do you look like you didn’t get any sleep last night?” Renzo asked. “Just have a rough sleep?” 

“No, far from. I actually had a great night. It just took me ages to fall asleep,” I lied. “I must have only gotten to sleep around 7:00 AM.” 

Junji and Arisu must have noticed, but neither of them made note of it. The truth was is that I was just really, really tired. And lazy that morning. 

“Anyways, Fujioka, you’re here early,” I noted. 

“Yeah,” Fujioka chuckled. “Mokichi and I were hanging out all day yesterday! We’re bros, ya know.” 

“Please don’t call me that,” Mokichi interjected. Fujioka paid no heed to him as he continued. 

“And I had to remind myself that, as bros, we’d eat breakfast together.” 

“Since when was that a thing?” Mokichi sighed. The poor guy sounded exhausted. Well, I guess it made sense. If he was hanging out with Fujioka, then they had probably been exercising their asses off. 

“Huh?” Fujioka blinked. “That’s always been a thing! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so bros have to have it together.” 

“I honestly feel sorry for you,” Hitomi commented. 

“I’m regretting everything,” Mokichi admitted. Fujioka, again, paid no heed to the comment. 

“And so we’re going to continue hanging out today.” 

“We never agreed on that,” Mokichi groaned. “Actually, if I’m not mistaken, I said I  _ wouldn’t _ do that again.” 

“O-Oh, well…” 

“This is awkward,” Renzo sighed. 

“Jocks tend to make it so,” Ririko agreed. 

“H-Hey!” Fujioka protested. 

“What’s going on in here?” Ryu’s sultry purr echoed through the dining hall as he waltzed in. 

“Making fun of Fujioka,” Arisu answered. “He and Mokichi are ‘ _ bros _ ’, apparently.” 

“We’re not,” Mokichi insisted. “I have no idea what the idiot is talking about.” 

“D-Don’t call me an idiot!” Fujioka, again, protested. “Why are you guys ganging up on me?” 

“If there’s anyone we gang up on, Fujioka,” Junji said, “it’d probably be Ryu. And Etsuya. And Rylan.” 

“We gang up on a lot of people,” Jotaro observed slowly. 

“That’s only 18.75% percent of our group,” Etsuya said as he strolled in. “It’s not that bad.” 

“I-I’d say, u-um, 18% o-of our g-g-group is a-a p-pretty, ah, bad p-percentage o-of th-the p-people we, um, g-gang up on,” Madoka said. 

“Madoka has a point,” Renzo agreed. “We gang up on 18% of us. That’s bad.” 

“It’s more 19%, if you round up,” Etsuya corrected. 

“That’s even worse!” Jotaro exclaimed. 

We continued that back and forth conversation as everyone else arrived. And everyone, just like they were supposed to be, were there. Everyone was still alive and the Killing Game had yet to begin. 

We all ate our breakfast hardly without word. At the end though, as we were all getting ready to leave, Aoki interrupted us. “Hey! Wait up!” 

“Hm?” Mokichi turned to her. “What is it?” 

“O-Oh, um, I just meant the girls. Sorry, Mokichi. Everyone else can leave.” 

“How rude,” Ryu gasped dramatically, placing a hand over his chest. Renzo, not having any of that, grabbed the back of Ryu’s shirt and dragged him out of the dining hall. Eight of us remained. 

“So?” I pressed. “What did you want?” 

“Well, I was thinking last night, perhaps we should have a girls’ night. Just the eight of us. Get a chance to better know each other.” 

“Pardon?” Rylan frowned. 

“Wh-What?” Aoki stammered. “Is that not a good idea?” 

“No, Mami thinks it is a great idea!” Mami cried, raising her hands above her head in cheer. 

“It’s not a bad idea,” Hitomi agreed, “but I can’t go.” 

“Huh? Why not?” Aoki asked. 

“Sorry, I’d like to, I would, but I can’t. I have things I need to attend to.” 

“You’re not planning anything, are you, Hitomi?” I asked darkly. 

“No, I’m not. Don’t believe me, ask the human lie detector.” She motioned towards Arisu. 

“Well, Arisu?” Ririko asked. “Is Hitomi lying, or not?” 

“No, she’s not. Hitomi is telling the truth. She has no sinister intentions planned for tonight. What her plans for tonight are though, I’m not sure.” 

“See?” Hitomi gloated. “Anywho, I can’t go, Aoki. Sorry.” 

“N-No, it’s fine,” Aoki said, waving her off. “It’s not that big of a deal. I’m just glad the rest of you will be there.” 

“Well there’s no fucking way I’m going to something so stupid!” Rylan stated loudly. “You can count me out!” 

“Oh. Wh-What about you, R-Ririko?” Aoki stammered. I could tell that having two of us drop out had hurt her. She wanted to bring eight people tonight, not six. 

Or five, it seemed. 

“I’m sorry, Aoki, but I won’t be able to make it. I’m working on writing a new melody, and I need to focus. Having a girls’ night would just distract me. I wish I could make it, I do, but I can’t.” 

“Oh. I-It’s fine.” 

“Mami is definitely going!” Mami cried, throwing her arms around Aoki. 

“I’m going, too,” I added. “You can count on me to be there, Aoki.” 

“Me, too,” Arisu nodded. “And you, Madoka?” 

Madoka nodded. “Y-Yeah. I can make it I-I think.” 

Aoki, finally, beamed. Four people coming at least made her happy. Which pleased me. 

“Is that all?” Rylan demanded. “I have places to be, ya know!” 

“Yeah, that’s all. I can’t wait for tonight!” Aoki cried happily. “I’ll make something special for us tonight! Oh, by the way! It’ll be right after the nighttime announcement! It’s in the pool area!” 

With that, Aoki rushed into the kitchen as the rest of us left. I gave a nod to Arisu and we split up, going two separate directions to reach the same place. Make it seem less conspicuous. Arisu would arrive after me, as she was taking the longer route. 

I soon arrived at the entryway. No one was around and the handle was exposed. I quickly opened the trap door and disappeared down it. 

“What was that all about?” Junji asked, turning to me. He had been working on organizing the room still. 

“Aoki wanted to invite me and the others to a girls’ night.” 

“Are you going?” 

“Of course I am! Arisu is too, so we’re going to have to leave right after the nighttime announcement. That’s when it starts.” 

“Y’know, where did Arisu go?” Junji wondered. 

“She’s taking the long way ‘round,” I explained. “We didn’t say anything, but both knew it’d be better if we didn’t walk in the same direction. It’d be suspicious if we did.” 

“Hm. Good thinking.” 

“Of course it’s good thinking, Junji.” I, rather dramatically, flipped my hair. It ended up wacking him across the face. He just grinned devilishly. And I cringed a smile back. 

“I’m going to pay you back for that, Rin Akabane,” he warned playfully. 

“I can’t wait to see you try,” I teased. 

His grin grew broader as we gave each other vulgar gestures. 

The two of us got to sorting the rest of the materials in the room. Arisu soon arrived with little left to do. Arisu didn’t say anything as she got to helping Junji and me sort through the final pieces of the papers. 

It must have taken us about ten minutes to completely finish setting up the room. 

Once we were done, we backed away and observed our work. It was all so clean now. Everything was neatly organized for me to sort through. “What now?” Junji asked. 

I ignored him and went over to the papers first. I started digging through them bit by bit. “What are you looking for?” Arisu asked. 

Again, I didn’t answer. I quickly rolled the papers open, scanned the page, then closed them again. They revealed nothing. There were a few more notes about one Katzumi Fujisaki, but it revealed nothing of who they were. I still was clueless as to their identity. 

Other than that, nothing. 

I then moved on to the books. The whole time I could feel Junji and Arisu watching me in some silent agreement to keep silent. 

In the books, I did come across something fascinating. Another diary entry. 

I’ve come across the true identity of Discord. Or, rather, he told me. Yes, Discord, the famed assassin, is a boy. He’s rather brilliant, I must admit. It pains me to admire someone who would oppose what is about to happen, but what can you do? Despair is our birthright. 

Unfortunately though, Discord  _ is _ being a pain in my ass. Being a pain in our collective asses, actually. He is too smart for his own good. He’s investigating us. I have to distract him. I know someone who would be more than happy to fuck with Discord. I’ll have to reveal Discord’s real identity to them, though. Discord will probably just think that the bastard put it together on his own. 

Poor soul. His talent to kill almost makes me feel bad for him. Especially when you’re a killer who hates killing. 

The  **Ultimate Despair** is now signing out. 

“Read this,” I instructed, handing the note to Junji and Arisu. They did as I said and read the entry a few times before looking back up at me. 

“The intuition of the  **Ultimate Historian** ,” Arisu complimented. “I’m surprised that you weren’t the  **Ultimate Detective** .” 

“Wh-What is that supposed to mean?” I blushed, flattered. 

“It’s simple,” Arisu shrugged. “Your intuition as the  **Ultimate Historian** and uncovering the mysteries of the past have given you the ability to find this little nugget of information. We may yet glean so much useful information from this.” 

“Is this entire diary from this  **Ultimate Despair** ?” Junji asked. 

I nodded. “It is. And, Arisu, what information do you think we can glean from this?” 

“Discord, the well known assassin, has something to do with this Killing Game. He, apparently, might even be opposed to this concept. And they’re opposed to killing despite being an assassin.” 

“Seems like a conflict of interests,” Junji commented. 

“It’s interesting that the mastermind found out  _ who _ Discord was,” I added. “ _ Nothing _ is known about them. Not their gender, age, height, name, nationality,  _ anything _ . And yet the mastermind found out several things about them. Question is: how?” 

“How do we even know that the  **Ultimate Despair** was the mastermind?” Junji mused. “We just kind of jumped to that conclusion, after all.” 

Arisu nodded in agreement, but I shook my head. “No, the **Ultimate Despair** _is_ indeed the mastermind. We know that the mastermind created this Killing Game for the purpose of despair. They had also been writing about creating the Killing Game. And, what it sounds like, the people they work with. We’ve deduced that the mastermind is probably working with a group, and the mastermind would be the head of that group. The yakuza, in a sense. Also, we have their letters and diary entries down here. From what I think, the only way that we would have these is if the mastermind themselves wrote them. 

“In the end, it only makes sense that the  **Ultimate Despair** is the mastermind.” 

Junji and Arisu nodded in unison. “Yeah, that makes sense,” Junji agreed. Arisu echoed the sentiment. 

“It’s not that big of a deal,” I told them nervously. “I’ve spent a lot of solving mysteries, that’s all. So this isn’t an issue.” 

“Very impressive,” Arisu complimented. “You don’t fail to impress.” 

“Huh!?” Junji gasped loudly. He had been flipping through the pages and stopped on one. Arisu leaned over and stared at the page. 

“What is it?” she asked cooly. 

“Junji?” I pressed. “What’s wrong?” 

He turned the book to me. I at once felt the blood wash from my face. 

Using blood, someone had made a picture of a hare in the notebook. A red hare. “J-Junji?” I whimpered. “H-How do they know about that?” 

He shook his head, shaken. “I-I’m not sure. How m-much do they know about us?” 

If they knew about  _ that _ , then there was nothing beyond their sight. Beyond their reach. Who the hell were we dealing with? To have gained such person information between Junji and I… 

“This means something to you two, doesn’t it?” Arisu asked. Astute as ever. 

I nodded. “Y-Yes.” 

“And you’re not going to tell me, are you?” 

Junji shook his head. “No.” 

“I could gather. This is personal between you two, and yet the mastermind knows about it. Something they shouldn’t know, I’d wager.” 

“No one was ever told,” I explained cryptically. 

Arisu stayed quiet for a moment. “You’re aware of how suspicious this is, right? Something that only the two of you should know is in the  **Ultimate Despair’s** notebook. It’s suspicious.” 

“Then it’s an ever better thing that we didn’t tell everyone,” I added. “It would have aroused suspicion for Junji and I being the mastermind.” 

“So what do we do with this?” Junji wondered. 

“We can’t destroy it,” I said sharply. “I’ll take it tonight and read through it. I might be able to glean more useful information.” 

“Perhaps,” Arisu agreed. 

“In the meantime,” I went on, “we need to continue sorting through this place. And, ah, sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to take the lead and just push the two of you back while I investigated.” 

“You’re the historian and the things here are sort of historical,” Junji reassured. “Well, historical for us, anyways. Some of these are important and have to do with the creation of this Killing Game. And then this.” He motioned towards the picture again. 

“What are we going to do about that?” I asked, eyeing it. The dried, red blood that had been used to paint a hare. 

“Ignore it, I suppose,” Junji sighed. “I don’t want to, but we don’t have much of a choice. Destroying it will be suspicious if anyone finds out about it later.” 

“I suppose that’s true,” I agreed. 

“It’s going to cause suspicious either way if the others find out,” Arisu informed us. “That is what would happen in that event.” 

“Then let's definitely not let the others know about this,” I sighed. 

“That was already the consensus,” Arisu pointed out. 

“I know, I’m just re-establishing that fact,” I defended. 

“There was no point though,” Junji said. 

I glared at him. He cocked his head, an arrogant expression dancing in his eyes. I stuck my tongue out at him as I turned around and started to sort through the books again. I felt Junji and Arisu come up on either side of me, doing the same thing as I was. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t find anything else in the books. Arisu had set the  **Ultimate Despair’s** diary on the middle table, where I was going to pick it up and carry it over to my room after Aoki’s girls’ night. 

The three of us had been sitting on the floor, reading whatever we could. Some of the handwriting was so horrible that we couldn’t make it out. Arisu had promised us that she would store all of the documents to memory so that we could ask her just in case we needed to. 

Then the nighttime announcement went off. “That’s right!” I cursed when I heard it. “Aoki’s girls’ night.” 

“Then I suppose you two should get on over there,” Junji said, waving his hand dismissively. 

“And what about you?” I asked as I got to my feet. 

“Me? I’m going to head back to my room. I’m tired as all hell, so I need some rest. Staying up reading these all day has been...tiring.” He had paused, as though searching for the right word. 

“Well, then sleep well tonight,” Arisu said as we headed out. 

“I will. And you two enjoy yourselves.” 

“I’m sure Aoki will find  _ some _ way to keep us entertained through the night,” I said. 

“Undoubtedly,” Arisu agreed. “She’s that kind of person.” 

“So let’s not keep her waiting,” I said, quickling climbing out of the secret room. 

Arisu followed me as we hurried towards the pool area. Inside, we saw Mami, Aoki, and Madoka already there. “You two are here!” Aoki cried happily. Behind her, I noticed a series of different things. 

Two chocolate cakes (one had chocolate frosting, the other had no frosting), cards, a board game, papers and paint, mats, and a lot of other food. “What is all this?” I asked as Arisu and I walked over to them. The three of them were in the middle of an UNO game. Well, two of them at least. Madoka and Aoki. Mami had half the deck in her hands and neither of them were putting down cards she could do anything with. And with her talent, she didn’t have a prayer in hell of making it any further. 

“All the things we need for tonight,” Aoki replied as she set down another card. Madoka frowned and set down a card of her own. Mami then started to pick up even more cards. Eventually, she was able to put a card down. 

“That is horrible luck,” Arisu commented as she, rather gracefully, sat down to watch. I sat down too, even though it was more of me just throwing my ass onto the ground. 

“That sounded painful,” Madoka commented. 

I blinked, surprised by the lack of stutter, but didn’t comment on it. “It was,” I admitted. “It really was.” 

“Mami wonders,” Mami hummed, “what you two have been doing all day? Mami hasn’t seen either of you all day.” 

My heart stopped. 

Arisu, ever the actress, made no sign this disturbed her. “Rin was trying to find an escape, still. We had run into each other earlier today and she told me. I, on the other hand, have been simply exploring this place and trying to completely memorize the layout,” she lied. “I was thinking that knowing the layout might be more useful for whenever we have to escape.” 

“That’s a good thought,” Aoki nodded, cheery as ever. “I’ve been working all day putting this together. It took me ages to make these cakes! I wasn’t sure if you liked frosting or not, so I made two. I also wasn’t sure if you liked cake, so I got some other things to eat. I found this UNO deck in the game room.” 

“Game room?” I repeated. 

“Yeah, there’s a game room. Mami and I found it today. Despite having investigated a ton of areas in this place, we still haven’t checked  _ every _ room. I ended up finding a room with just games. Board games, specifically. There were also decks and decks of cards.” 

“It how Aoki and Mami found the UNO deck of cards!” Mami added loudly. 

“I haven’t really done a lot today,” Madoka confessed, looking away shyly. “I’ve been with Renzo all day. Well, Renzo and Fujioka. Fujioka had dragged the two of us to that exercise room.” 

“Fujioka is a jock, so that makes sense,” I nodded. “I just didn’t think that you’d be one to exercise. I don’t mean to be rude, though.” 

“No, it’s fine. I don’t really exercise that much. Or do anything like that. I used to spend all day wrapped up in my lab, working until I passed out from exhaustion.” 

“I guess we should be slightly glad that there isn’t really a lab here,” Arisu commented. “We can’t have Jotaro keep patching you up everytime you collapse.” 

“It’d be an inconvenience for him, yes,” Madoka agreed. “The poor guy’s already worried about all of us as it is. I don’t want to put  _ more _ on his mind.” 

“How generous,” I noted. 

“You’re so kind, Madoka!” Aoki squealed, finally setting down another UNO card. 

“I-It’s nothing special,” Madoka insisted as she played her card. 

“I’m curious though,” I mused, “what did you do then while you were with Renzo and Fujioka?” 

This time, Madoka looked away as she blushed. “I just sat there and talked to them. A-And watched.” 

“Aha!” Mami suddenly cried before any of us could respond. We all turned to her, shocked. Well, maybe not Arisu. If she was, you couldn’t tell. 

“Wh-What’s wrong?” I stammered. 

“Hm? Nothing. Mami just got a great, great, super-great card!” 

I blinked. After a moment, I replied with, “Great.” 

“And what did you get?” Aoki asked, a little nervous. 

“A plus four for you, Aoki!” Mami cried, slamming the card on the deck. Or at least she tried to. Her hand missed the deck and she ended up slamming her hand on the bare concrete. She yelped as she whipped her hand back to her, cuddling it into her. 

“Are you okay!?” Madoka gasped, springing into action. She grabbed Mami’s hand and opened it, examining the skin. 

Mami, though, nodded. “Mami’s okay. Mami is used to being in pain. So this is nothing new for her.” 

“You’re used to being hurt?” Aoki asked quietly. 

Mami nodded, totally unfazed by the sudden downcast mood. “Mami’s fine,” she repeated. “Mami just wants us to continue the game.” With her other hand, Mami grabbed the plus four UNO card and carefully set it on the deck.

Madoka looked uncertain, but backed off and sat down where she was before. The fox tail had been pushed behind Madoka originally, but it was now out to her side. 

Aoki frowned at the card. “What color?” she sighed. 

Mami thought, humming while she did so. She scanned her deck as she did so. “Yellow,” she eventually said. 

Aoki’s frown deepened as she reached for the deck. She instantly put the card she picked up down. 

The came continued with small talk until eventually Madoka won. Arisu and I then joined them. Throughout the night, we ate  _ both _ cakes and played UNO. Eventually, we tried to move on to the board game, but none of us could understand the poorly written directions for the life of us, so we gave up on that and instead went to a different card game. I had to resist the urge to explain the history of some of the different card games we played, too. I wasn’t sure if any of them had noticed though. 

It was around twelve when we had given up on games and just started talking to each other. Explaining our lives to each other. I felt that the others were leaving bits and pieces out of their stories, but so was I. So, meh, it didn’t matter too much. 

Aoki, apparently, really got into singing after listening to people sing. She kept throwing on headphones and vanishing into music after people kept bullying her for her eccentricity. She said that it was blissful and hopeful when she listened to music. It was what inspired her to start singing. 

The rest of us didn’t explain how we got into our talents. Even though Mami couldn’t really explain how she got into her talent, considering her talent was something she was good at. Or bad at, for that matter. For a talent of simply ‘bad luck’, she had nothing to really explain save for all the times her talent put her in agony. And she was sure to tell of those. It took a long, long time for her to get through all the ones she could remember. 

At the end, Arisu sighed. “To be honest, I was wondering how you were going to do this. I was kind of worried that you make it a stereotypical girls’ night like you’d see a movie.” 

“I know you’ve had to act through plenty of stereotypical girls’ nights,” I said. I always used to jokingly covered Junji’s eyes during those scenes. They weren’t bad, but I enjoyed driving Junji mad with concern and imagination. 

She nodded. “And it’s painful every time. Having to act like that is always my least favorite thing to do. But I do it anyways.” 

“Because you’re the  **Ultimate Actress** ?” Madoka guessed. 

“I’m the  **Ultimate Actress** because I will do anything if the role requires. My determination to please people with my acting is so strong that I will do whatever I must.” 

“That’s true determination,” I commented. 

“Indeed,” Aoki agreed. “But would you have preferred a stereotypical girls’ night?” 

“I believe I just said I wouldn’t,” Arisu countered. 

“Mami’s curious, what would you even do in a stereotypical girls’ night?” 

“From all the things that I’ve had to act,” Arisu explained, “you literally only talk about boys before you beat the crap out of each other with pillows.” 

“The second part does kind of sound fun,” Aoki said. 

“And it’s not like the boys here are much to talk about,” Arisu added. “Etsuya’s...Etsuya. Fujioka is a headstrong jock. Naomi I don’t know anything about. Mokichi I also don’t know anything about, but he’s so odd and enigmatic. Ryu is just a perv and probably a whore.” 

“That’s a bit assumptious,” I blinked. 

“But probably correct,” Madoka said. “Jotaro’s not bad though. And Renzo isn’t either.” 

“Renzo is mainly all about you,” Aoki teased. “And, while kind to all of us, clearly is all about you. And Junji is all about Rin.” 

I blinked, not surprised and yet surprised at the same time. “Wh-What is that supposed to mean?” 

“What she means,” Mami said, “is that you and Junji are very, very close. Why is that?” 

“Junji and I have known each other out entire lives,” I explained. “We grew up together.” 

“That doesn’t explain what you see in him,” Aoki purred. “Come on, tell us!” 

“I-I don’t know!” I defended. “As I said, Junji and I have known each other our entire lives.” 

“Oh, come on,” Arisu teased. “What do you see in him?” 

“I-I don’t know! Th-There’s a certain je n’est sais quoi about him,” I lied. “I don’t know!” 

“It’s fine,” Madoka cut in. “You don’t have to explain. Come to think of it, these past few minutes have indeed turned into a stereotypical girls’ night.” 

“Now all we’re missing is just beating the crap out of each other with pillows,” Arisu sighed. 

“Mami thinks that would be fun!” Mami cried. “Mami wants to do that!” 

“With your luck,” I said, “we’d probably end up somehow killing you with a pillow or with the result of a pillow.” 

“Oh, yeah,” Mami sighed sadly. “You’re probably right. Sorry, Mami wasn’t thinking.” 

“It’s fine,” Aoki reassured her. “Rin’s just looking out for you, right?” 

I nodded. “Absolutely. I want us to escape together. Perhaps, after we all escape, the five of us could stay together. Or at least do this again after we escape and keep doing it. I haven’t had this much fun in years. I’ve been totally enraptured in my work for the past two years that I haven’t had the time to sit down and just enjoy life. Unfortunately, I can’t really enjoy life at the moment. WIth this Killing Game situation and all.” 

“I would love that!” Aoki cried happily. “We could start a five person band!” 

“Ah, I-I don’t know how to play any instruments,” I said. “Nor can I sing.” 

“Mami can’t either,” Mami added. 

“I’m trash when it comes to anything other than science,” Madoka whispered. 

“You can learn,” Aoki said, brushing all of that off. “You all can learn. Oh wait, what about you, Arisu? Can you-” 

“I can,” Arisu interrupted. “I’ve had to learn for roles before. I’ve also gone through vocal training, so I can sing, too. I can sing in other languages, too.” 

“Oh, I guess that’d make sense,” Aoki nodded. “Of course the  **Ultimate Actress** is bilingual.” 

“Still though,” Madoka cut in, “I agree with Rin. It’d be nice...to have friends.” 

“We’ll be the best of friends!” Mami cried, slinging her arm around Madoka. Madoka was too stunned to react for a moment as she just stared shocked at Mami. But before too long, that stunned expression turned into a smile. A weak one, but it was still a smile. 

“Anyways,” I yawned, getting to my feet, “I’m tired as all hell. I’ll see you all tomorrow. And then, once we escape, we’ll all stay friends and keep doing this, right?” 

“Oh, undoubtedly!” Aoki cried, saluting me as I walked out, waving to them. 

Tired, exhausted, groggy, I wobbled back to my room. I barely made it to my bed before my legs gave out and I fell over, slipping into unconsciousness. 


End file.
